Powerless

One thing I've learned since moving to Nashvile is that folks in these parts don't like snow... or even the forecast of a slight chance of snow. 

So I wasn't surprised yesterday afternoon when I heard the radio DJ say Nashville was under a Winter Weather Advisory.  They we were expecting 1-2 inches of snow.  (1-2 inches?!  Where I come from, we call that half-time.)  I also wasn't surprised when I received an e-mail around 3 p.m. informing me that the university was closing early due to "deteriorating weather conditions". It was snowing, but I really wasn't concerned.  Nevertheless, we left work about 30 min. early, mostly because people drive like maniacs when the first snowflake falls.  So we wanted to beat the crazies...

Apparently everyone in Nashville had the same idea.  Traffic was insane.

This might be a good time to mention that Snuggles has a cold (again!).  As often happens when Snuggles has nasal congestion, he gets a cough and wheezes.  When that happens, we have to give him breathing treatments (with a nebulizer) every 3-4 hours to keep his breathing under control until he recovers.

While we navigated through traffic, Snuggles coughed up a storm in the backseat.  I said to Guitarman, "Well, he's going to need breathing treatments tonight.  I'll give him one as soon as we get home." 

We drove along listening to Snuggle wheeze and cough.  Guitarman seemed worried.  In an effort to distract him, I joked about the unnecessary panic over the snow.  I pulled out my cell phone and posted on my Facebook status:  "We're having a heat wave... a tropical heat wave."  When we stopped at a light, Guitarman posted on his Facebook status: "Oh no... an inch or so expected.  Call in the National Guard!"

Had we known what lay ahead for the evening, we wouldn't have laughed.

We arrived home about 4:45 p.m. to discover the garage door wouldn't open.  Thinking the remote batteries were dead, I got out of the truck and tried the remote in the other car.  No luck. That's when it occurred to me that the electricity might be out.

We barely made it in the front door before John's mom called down from upstairs:  "The power went out about 4:15."  Lovely.

Meanwhile, Snuggles was really coughing and wheezing. He needed a breathing treatment, but we had no electricity to operate the nebulizer.  So I called some friends from church who live nearby.  We all piled into the truck, and made our way to their house.  We quickly gave Snuggles a breathing treatment, and then headed out to dinner.

I was worried that Snuggles would be a challenge at the restaurant because he had not been sleeping well due to the coughing, and he just wasn't feeling well.  Fortunately, Snuggles was great at dinner.  In fact, he was quite entertaining.

He played with Daddy's hat.

And entertained all the folks around us by flapping his arms like a bird.
(He does that when he's excited.)

When we headed home from Cracker Barrel, the roads were getting worse.  Most of the cars were off the roads by then, and things were getting icy.  We were sure our power would be back on by the time we got home...

Wrong.

We sat in the warm truck in our driveway and discussed our options. We debated going to a hotel, but realized it would be a pain in the butt major undertaking to pack up Snuggles, John's mom, the dog and all our crap stuff (in the dark). Plus, we really didn't want to pay for a hotel because we were certain the electricity would be restored soon.  After all, they wouldn't leave people without heat in the middle of snowstorm, right?

Wrong again.

Using my phone, we got on the Nashville Electric web site, hoping for some insight on why our power had been out for almost four hours, especially since the power lines are buried underground in our subdivision.  The NES web site featured an "Outage Map" that clearly identified our subdivision (and several other subdivisions near ours) were without electricity.  The Outage Map was color-coded to show when crews were dispatched and working in the area. But for our area it said, "No crews dispatched".  Translation: We're sorry it's cold and snowing, but you're out of luck.

At that point, it was after 8 p.m.  Snuggles was coughing and wheezing again.  He needed another breathing treatment...  So we got John's mom settled in the house in front of the fireplace (gas!), and we headed back out to find some electricity.

A nearby McDonalds allowed us to use an electrical outlet to plug in Snuggles' nebulizer, and we ignored the curious stares directed our way as Snuggles screamed through his breathing treatment.  (He couldn't help his Mama out by sitting quietly for his treatment for once.)

On our way back home, we saw Nashville Electric trucks headed toward our house.  Eureka! We also saw some work trucks in our subdivision when we arrived back home.  So we knew they were working on restoring power.  After seeing the "No crews dispatched" message on the electric company's web site, those work crews were a comforting sight.

We decided to stay at the house, hoping the electric would be restored soon.  We bundled up Snuggles in fleece, footed PJs, and set up his pack-n-play right next to the fireplace.  We knew he would stay plenty warm there.  Guitarman offered to sleep on the couch to watch over Snuggles while I slept in our bed.

We went to bed early around 9 p.m.  (What else can you do when it's dark in your house and you're freezing cold?)  I piled a bunch of blankets on my bed and tried to go to sleep...

Have you ever tried to sleep in complete silence?  It's deafening.

I usually sleep with a fan on.  But last night I lay wide awake in bed listening to the complete silence... All I could hear was Snuggles coughing downstairs... and coughing... and coughing.

I gave up on trying to sleep.  I picked up my cell phone, got on Facebook, and posted: "Playing 'Little House on the Prairie' is getting old.  I'd like my power back, please."

I must have fallen asleep because I awoke at 2 a.m. when the light beside my bed came on.  YAY!  The power came on just in time because the house was freezing cold!  It took me awhile to go back to sleep because it was butt cold my toes were numb and my teeth were chattering.

Snuggles was cozy warm beside the fireplace all night. I found him this morning, still sound alseep in his pack-n-play, and snoring loudly.  (Guitarman had turned the fireplace off after the heat came back on.)

You can't see it in the picture below, but Snuggles' left leg
is curled up underneath him.

I don't know how this could possibly be comfortable... He's quite the contortionist.