Monday, December 23, 2013

We have Power!

Saturday night, at 11:00 p.m., our power went out. It turns out that we weren't the only ones. Over 250,000 homes were affected.

The power outage was caused by an ice storm. This is the view from our backyard.

There were a lot of tree branches that came down with the weight of the ice.

The view down the street. My neighbour always keeps his walk free of ice and snow. They use their side door to enter so the front stairs are not that important.

The view to the north. You can just about make out that there is a white vehicle under the tree branch on the left.

This is the vehicle. I don't think there is much damage to it but the owner was having problems contacting his insurance company on Sunday.

It wasn't long before these guys showed up...

to put up some yellow tape around the tree branch and vehicle.

That's the owner on the right.

On the home front, this is how my husband decided we could have a cup of tea, coffee, or...

some chicken noodle cup-a-soup. We were cold, our youngest daughter and her boyfriend, who live 4 subway stops away were also without power. Our middle daughter and her boyfriend had power. They live in the west end and our eldest son and his wife, who live north of us, also had power. We popped in to see them, to warm up and watch a video and were treated to snacks, wine and a great dinner of veggie lasagna and salad. They very generously offered their extra bedroom for the night but we had two senior cats that needed us at home. After that we went to the show to see Hunger Games 2 with our youngest daughter and her boyfriend. It was quite busy there because it was one place that you could get warm for a few hours. 
This morning the power went back on just before 8:00 a.m. The thermostat in the house read 56F (13C) when I decided to look at it so I think it went a bit below that. I am waiting until it warms up a bit more before I continue on with my baking. I managed a bunch of jam thumbprints on Saturday night and was going to make some Chinese Almond cookies on Sunday so that's what I will start with. I have to make some more thumbprints because I got rave reviews on them.

 I will leave you with this photo of Digit who is trying to get warm in front of the heat register. Pixel is on the heat register in the kitchen (it's on the floor and there's an area rug on top.) I feel so fortunate to have heat and electricity because I know that there are still many more households out there without heat. The hydro workers are out in full force but some may not get their power restored until Christmas or Boxing Day.

14 comments:

  1. So glad to hear your power has been restored , I was wondering if you had lost power . It was terrible storm for your area , we had ice as well but nothing like you . Take.
    care and Merry Christmas !

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  2. Hi, yesterday I entered 'latest news' on Google and up came " Hamilton, Ice storm" and it is so severe and widespread, and the worst part was no hearting without the power. I'm so glad you have power now, keep warm, and stay close to home maybe. Christmas Greetings, Jean.

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  3. You guys are all over our news out here Dolores....glad you have your power back now... nothing worse than freezing in the house.... get busy baking...that'll help warm things up nicely.... and after baking leave the oven door wide open.... I love doing that...it warms the kitchen nicely.
    I made the same cookies I think. My Mom used to call them Birds Nests ....but, I never see that name anywhere ..my old Canadian cookbook calls them thumb prints or Swedish cakes... mine turned out great too...we decided to save most of them for us as Greg's stomach is bothering him these days and it doesn't react well to chocolate...so non chocolate ones are best for him.....

    I wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas Dolores .... and here's to a great New Year for us all.....

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  4. brrrrr-rrrrr winter at your house is very winterish indeed! Glad the power is back and the cats lived through it! Wishing you the best! (your work is magnificent, you are the QUEEN!)

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  5. This is about the worst time of the year to be without power! I hope yours will keep on working and you can keep warm and cook your meals.

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  6. I had heard about your ice storms! So glad you survived. It certainly is a very bad time to be without power. We had several winters in a row ('07 to '9 I think) where we had huge snowfalls, and the snow here is wet and heavy so had similar events with trees falling on power lines. Once it was so close to Christmas I feared I would not be able to cook the turkey, as well as worrry if our family would make it here from the UK and Kamloops.

    Wishing you and yours a Happy Christmas. Hauskaa Joulua!

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  7. What a mess. Ice really is dangerous. I feel for Digit, poor guy. Baking is such a nice way to get some goodies made and to warm up the house at the same time.

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  8. I have been following the news of your terrible storm, and even though we are in a deep freeze here, at least we have power and heat!! Stay safe and Merry Christmas!

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  9. So glad your power is back on. We are in Peterborough and were blessed that we did not get the brunt of the storm. Stay Warm and Merry Christmas.

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  10. Glad your power is up and running. Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

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  11. So glad that you have hydro - and are warm and safe. Take care, and a merry Christmas to you and yours.

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  12. How funny:) When the power came back on our cats headed for the heat vents too.

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  13. Pleased to hear you got your power back and could get warm again. Wish we could've sent you some of our mid-summer tropical heat! You really did have a white Christmas then! Hope it was happy and you're looking forward to a wonderful new year.

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  14. I've been hearing about the storms in Canada- all the way over here in Australia. looks bad.Must have been awful without power.poor kitties!!

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