Day 1.337: What shall we do now?

It's now 45 hours since we lost our electricity supply. The aftermath of this ice-storm is so attractive - but so many trees have been destroyed by the weight of the ice - pine trees doing particularly badly thanks to the extreme surface area of the needles. Everywhere we go, we see fallen branches, trees leaning on electricity cables and other less-than-encouraging signs.

Today has been the weirdest day - punctuated by asking ourselves (and each other) 'What shall we do now?' whenever our 'normal' activities were made impossible by the condition we find ourselves in:

6.30 - Woken by the girls coming into our room and dislodging the covers - wow it was cold.
7.30 Light a fire and have breakfast in the warm zone (within four feet of the fire-guard).
8.30 WSWDN?
9.30 Second breakfast at a cafe with free WiFi and hot coffee!
10.30 E5N1 becomes noisy
10.31 WSWDN?
11.30 Buy Christmas Tree - on what is probably the peak of the decorating season in the UK, the tree was already a 'clearance special' at 25% off and what was left in terms of decorations were half price.
12.30 Start decorating tree.
1.09 Take Exile #4 to a party in a penthouse apartment in downtown Albany.
1.10 Realise that we are in our warmest clothes and haven't had a shower or a shave in days.
3.10 Leave the party (with some of our dignity in tact)
3.11 WSWDN?
3.15 Take friends up on their facebook offer of a warm place to go.
6.00 Confirmation that our house is still powerless
7.00 WSWDN?
7.30 Decide to accept the offer to stay here - Exile #3 says quietly to Exile #2, "They are so kind letting us stay." Yes they are!

So we have beds and warmth. We'll deal with our cold shell of a house tomorrow.