It took six days for the power to come back on. Six. Days. And we’re among the lucky ones. As of this posting, there are still about 100,000 Connecticut customers in the dark, eight days after the Oct. 29 freak storm.
Even though we were doubly lucky to have a comfortable place to stay, it’s still no picnic to be uprooted for a week. It meant a flurry of canceled and rescheduled appointments, last-minute work accommodations and worries about our property from 70+ miles away. I woke up around 4:45 a.m. Thursday in a panic, remembering that the power had gone out Saturday while we were cooking dinner and oh my God, did I even think to turn the stove off? Would the power come back on while we were away and start a fire?
Rob returned to Connecticut Thursday for a work meeting and I stayed behind in Massachusetts. On Friday morning, I’d had enough and decided to just book a hotel for a weekend getaway. And in a classic case of “a watched pot never boils,” our power was restored around 1 p.m. Friday, just two hours after I secured reservations near the Mystic area. I got a jubilant text from Rob as I was driving home on the Mass Pike.
Our first order of business was to clean out the fridge and freezer. We’d trucked the “important” food (newly purchased milk, lunch meat, cheese and other perishables) around in a cooler for a week, but plenty more remained, thawing. Rob had most of the job finished when I arrived home, and as you can see by the photo, he tossed everything. Everything.
I’d been meaning to clean the fridge for quite some time. I guess it just takes a natural disaster to light a fire under my ass.
The week-long power outage is something I never want to experience again, but some sick part of me is thrilled by the pristine fridge, rid of old sticky stains and papery garlic skins and a leftover lemon wedge moldering in the forgotten back recesses of the shelves. At the same time, restocking everything in it is going to be a slow and expensive process. I lost my sourdough starter, for one, and frozen Connecticut-grown strawberries and herbs that I’d hoped to enjoy through the winter. Obviously, tiny inconveniences in the scheme of things, but not easily replaceable.
But I’ll tell you this – I have NEVER been more excited to cook again. Or do laundry. Or vacuum, or clean the kitchen. Electricity is the best thing ever.
Leeanne Griffin is a freelance writer and food enthusiast.
