Thursday is when the actual adventure of the Blizzard took affect for me. At about 12:45 the power went out in Amenia. I was texting and talking with my buddy Bridget in Mapleton, who was also out of power. I was hoping it was just a short outage but had a feeling that it wasn't. After peering out the kitchen window I was pretty sure Bill needed to come home from work ASAP and we were in for a doozy of a storm. I could not see the bar across the road and I watched the thermostat drop 2 degrees in about twenty minutes. I got a hold of Bill and advised he hurry up and get home. He stopped at Hardware Hank, picked up a little propane heater and headed home. 3:00 arrived and still no power, I had a few phone calls and had called into Ottertail to see what was up. I would just like to point out that I love Ottertail and the linemen that got our power back. However, the news from Jerry was not good. She said they were working on the outage but were going to have to pull the workers because it was not safe and roads were being shut down. She said they were going to try again in the morning.
At that point I was a bit concerned but thought, hey a few years ago we were out for three days and we were fine. Then I realized that two years ago it was not as cold and no 40 mph winds. 4:00, my council people and I made a plan to call everyone in town and let everyone know what was up. Boy, the saying don't shoot the messenger holds true:) O-well! We got a few people connected with those with a generator or wood stove and Bill and I hunkered down for the night.
At about 6:00 the temp in the house was 47 degrees and I was getting cold. Bill and I headed upstairs, shut the bedroom door and hunkered down for the night.
Our bedroom stayed pretty warm, about 50 degrees and with both dogs under the covers with us we were fine. However, we were very concerned about downstairs. Oh and we were really worried about an elderly guy named Bob in town, he did not want to leave his trailer, he had to stay with his cats!
7:00 then next morning I was praying the power would be on soon and our pipes would not be frozen. The thermostat in our living room was down to 27 degrees!!!
By 9:30ish the electricity popped back on for a bit, but we knew it would take awhile to warm up so we headed to the school to shower and warm up for a bit.
The power stayed on for a few hours and then was off again for awhile. After talking to Ottertail, we were assured power would be on again late afternoon, early evening so we did not stress about it. I even made it on good old KFGO to report Ottertail was working on the situation.
I think my idea of being mayor was a little concerning because I thought it was going to be a pain in the rear. Instead it made me feel good to be able to let everyone know what was going on and do a bit of organizing for people to make sure everyone stayed safe. We stayed connected with our neighbors, and good old Bob made it through and so did his cats.
I am starting to get a bit concerned about this Spring and what my duties might include during the impending flood. As for now, we are warm and toasty and loving the quality time we have spent together.
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