Unforeseen Obstacles Give Us Pause

These are the moments that reveal who you can count on in life – moments with no heat, hot water or food.

Who knew the Halloween storm would be so catastrophic? This was definitely a storm for the history books.

Saturday, I awoke to one of my many long lists of things-to-do. As I began puttering around the house, the clouds caved in and brought with it a chill. Before long, the sweet, white, fluffy snow began to cover my window sills; it was pretty, but would not make my car happy.

Noon approached, and I hopped in the shower. My 2:30pm talk would come before I knew it, and the snow was going to slow my travel down.

Before long, the ground was covered and the road was slick and slushy. A few errands done and my talk canceled, I headed home. Driving up Route 70 to Main Street was not fun – not fun at all.

I got stuck down by The Notch and then again by Elite Travel. By The Notch a woman told me to be patient and pray. I did just that and was eventually on my way. By Elite Travel, a friendly gentleman came out of his house to help me and some others. He guided me as I turned around, and he pushed me back down the hill.

I took my first left and headed from Cornwall to Oak. Then I took Higgins to Ward to South Brooksvale and back to Route 10. It took me over an hour to go less than a mile. The moment I did a 180 in my driveway was when I realized the storm would be worse than I thought.

Realizing I was not making it to my parking spot, I headed to a nearby business lot and parked for the night. And luckily the next morning someone coming to plow the lot helped shovel me out.

During that first night of no electricity, I trudged my way through the snow twice; I had to plug in my laptop and phone.

The following days were some of the longest in my life. I spent time with new and old friends. And I even added errands to my list just to keep myself out of the cold house.

Each night I came home and sat in the car for about 30 minutes or so. Monday night I dozed off, and the 30 minutes became an hour and a half – my poor car. Seeing that it needed an oil change and a filter, leaving the car running in the cold was very deleterious.

Then, Monday night I was awoken by a light in the living room at 4am. I got up, took some covers off my bed, took a shower, turned up the heat and climbed back into bed.

Isn’t it interesting how we take these things for granted; isn’t it interesting how we forget that years ago people actually survived without electricity?

The town’s emergency shelters, a few good friends and Wallingford’s power are what kept me going. What kept you going? Who were you able to count on in this trying time? Friends? Family? Community? Or, were you not affected at all?

Share your story as I have shared mine.