Extended Pioneer Celebrations

This year's Pioneer Day weekend was quite memorable. First, I spied a Baskin-Robbins not far from our house and decided that since a holiday weekend was coming up, I would splurge on an ice cream cake - YUM! The guy in the store gave me an interesting look when I told him this is what I wanted him to write on it:Unlike our last ice cream cake, this one made it home without melting. Rather than cutting into ourselves, we decided to invite some people over after church Sunday to help us eat it and play games. Little did we know what was awaiting.

(Times are approximate)
3:15, Nick leaves the house to go Home Teaching. I finish up talking to mom on the phone.
3:25, the sky begins to turn a very dark gray.
3:28, the winds start to blow and rain falls from the sky.
3:30, the winds are blowing so hard, the huge trees out front are pretty much diagonal, when you can see them between the clouds of pouring rain blowing horizontally in the wind. The power flickers on and off.
3:40, the sky is blue again.
3:42, the power goes out - officially.
4:45, Nick returns from Home Teaching, drenched since they were walking to someone's door when the rain came down.

Lucky for us, our ice cream cake would not go to waste. Our friends showed up around 7:00 and we ate most of the cake.

In the photo left to right:
Tiffany & Ryan, Nick, Dolores & De Rees, Matt & Vanessa

We played games, and when it got dark, like true pioneers, we continued to play by candlelight. (The candles gave off much more light than you can tell in the pictures.)

That was all fun and games. we thought that would end our little Pioneer Day celebration and the power would come on sometime during the night. Ha! The joke was on us. As it turns out, the short, yet terrible storm, did some major damage and half the county was out of power. They were estimating that it wouldn't all be back up until Thursday. Luckily, we were lazy Saturday and hadn't gone to the store to replenish our fridge, so all we lost was some chicken and miscellaneous lunch meat/cheese items.

The days were hot and boring. I was really dreading the rest of the week. Happily, though, the power came back on almost exactly 48 hours after it went off. I don't remember ever going that long without electricity. Man, I love power. I love lights and computers, ovens and washing machines, refrigerators and hot water heaters, television and clocks, oh, and aid I mention air conditioning? I could go on.

I was very grateful for emergency preparedness. We had an oil lamp (with oil), plenty of candles and lighters, flashlights and batteries. Luckily our stove is gas, so we were able to cook on it, but if not, we have an emergency stove we could have used. Tonight we are going to eat a real meal (at a restaurant, so I don't have to cook). I have been eating various random foods from the fridge before they went bad and I don't think my tummy was ready for all that fruit/veggie/meat/cheese combo.

I am sure not cut out to be a true pioneer.