Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for January 13, 2011

They’d better have a fireplace! Without power, there’s no heat. Even a gas furnace requires a fan…..

Aways, just when you think you can enjoy the snow day blink the lights go out.

This is why we have a gas stove to cook on, and an old wood burning “Home Comfort” cook stove for emergency heat.

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Kreole, that’s why we also have a gas fireplace.

Gas stove/oven is always a nice back up too…I spent 1 night sleeping in front of mine.

That’s why I liked the old monstrosity of a heater in the basement of our old house. No power - no problem. Still had heat. It was a gravity heater - no fan. Loved it.

Doe Wally have a barbecue? No problem, then; waffles on the barbie! Or maybe pancakes; they’re pretty much the same batter, and don’t need a special shape.

This is a rerun. I saw this three years ago.

LOL, so true! Even though we’ve been at home for several days now, it hasn’t been too bad because we have electricity. Now the cabin fever is another story…

ladyfingers, one of them does, I’m not sure which house they were in, but we saw a fireplace at Christmas.

Monkeyhead, be careful of carbon monoxide poisoning!

Time to hibernate- Spring’s only 66 days away!

If you live in total electric home as I do, the first thing you do if the power goes out is take a shower. Water in tank won’t stay hot for any length of time. Lost power for three days once, kept one small room warm with one oil lamp and several candles. Now have propane camp stove and coffee pot in attic, never used, but just in case!

Why is it so dark when it is daytime?

What about the videos & E-mail ?

Why cabin fever? You don’t need to have electricity in order to go out of the house. Of course, you might prefer to huddle inside where there can be a little warmth. But even a car can be warm - provided it has enough gasoline to run it.

We always had several power failures every winter when I was small. In every room we kept one of those thick white candles that we attached to a small plate by melting the bottom of the candle.

Nowadays, I wouldn’t dream of using candles - too inflammable. Instead, I keep a flashlight in every room. And we have had very few power failures these last few years. Unfortunately, when we do have them (1) they can come any time of year, and (2) they tend to last for days.

I remember the Ice Storm (1998? 1999?), when the power was off for at least three days (depending on where you lived). It nearly killed me. After a few days I was just so fed up with all this cold and darkness, and (as Val has pointed out) can’t do so many things (I’d say to myself, “No point going to work, so I’ll go to a movie.” nooooooooo.)

I was trying to keep myself warm by wearing a mink coat I had from my mother (I discovered that people wear mink coats not only to show off how much money they have, but also because they’re warm as toast yet light as a feather!), and I was shocked to find that even with that and several thick sweaters, I was still cold! So I decided I was just going to lie down and sleep till it was over….

Fortunately a friend of mine phoned (now why do power outages not affect phones??! or will they affect cell phones?), and he immediately said he would come and pick me up. He drove all the way across town to get me, and he and his wife looked after me (no idea why they had power). I will never forget the shower I took in their house. I stayed in it until I stopped shivering.

I hope I haven’t jinxed this winter! Keep the power outages on the comic pages! I’m looking forward to enjoying them there!

Good to see Holly and Alix looking so happy - literally jumping for joy!

We had a vent in the kitchen that wouldn’t close so we were fine there. It was yrs ago thank god. Now I’m blessed with plenty of family that have generators.

a few years ago I was without power for ELEVEN DAYS, in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma. That was horrible, especially because I am on well water, and the pump runs on electricity, so –no running water, nor could we flush toilets. We had to finally borrow a generator, but that was the longest 11 days of my life. Now I pay my electric bills with gratitude: I just cannot live without electricity!