Day 1.338: That's better!

After breakfast we said a very grateful farewell to our hosts from last night and headed home to investigate the situation. Summary: still no power, temperatures above freezing (inside at least), no sign of frozen pipes. From there we went on to the Albaniana house where I had a wonderful shower and shave. After lunch The Man and I went to buy a chainsaw for yard-clear-up duties at both properties. On the way back we stopped to pick up a few things at our house and discovered the power had been reconnected.

It had been off for at least 60 hours.

This evening we were with our church friends having a Christmas party - also celebrating all-but-one of our households now having power. When we got back here we lit up the partially decorated Christmas tree for the first time and found that the house was up to its normal temperature. Quite a relief.

Actually it's a huge relief - and that is quite chastening really. We had no electricity for two and a half days and we began to feel like refugees, social pariahs, homeless, squatters in our own home, you name it! All this when we actually had nearly infinite resources at our disposal: we could choose to eat out at every meal, even book into a hotel if we needed to and yet we were constantly exhausted and fazed by the whole experience. It casts the fate of people in real need (people displaced by war or natural disaster or made homeless by poverty for example) into a sharper relief. It also demonstrated to us what a difference real friendship can make - not just to offer help but to really convince those in need that you are not just willing to but actually want to help them.

Right now, we are grateful for all the help we have received and for all that we have - I hope that it is a lesson we do not have to relearn this way (or a harder way) any time soon.