{"id":931,"date":"2009-01-28T15:19:11","date_gmt":"2009-01-28T19:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/2009\/01\/28\/crash-bucket-chronicles-%e2%80%94-day-two\/"},"modified":"2009-02-07T03:09:30","modified_gmt":"2009-02-07T07:09:30","slug":"crash-bucket-chronicles-%e2%80%94-day-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/archives\/931","title":{"rendered":"Crash Bucket Chronicles \u2014 Day Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSuch are the trifles which produce quarrels on shipboard. In fact, we had been too long from port. We were getting tired of one another, and were in an irritable state, both forward and aft.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
\nTwo Years Before the Mast<\/em>
\n \n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

IDEAL FOR: Camping, Tailgating, Emergencies<\/strong>
\n     We made it through the night without any \u201ccasualties.\u201d Before bed, Dana had reached her brother in California to discuss carbon monoxide safety issues. We cracked a window for fresh air and verified that the flames were burning a steady blue. I\u2019d already made sure to set the flue damper for a decent exhaust draw. Dana also had contact with Joan. She was burning wood at a socked-in Kelley Ridge. Mombo had been evacuated to the Keep by Glenda, and the Hellyers were reportedly clustered around a kerosene heater. We hoped that they also had made certain of adequate ventilation.
\n     Bruce and I disagreed over his wanting to go outside to begin clearing fallen limbs. In addition to the hazard of continuous downfall, he\u2019d just been released from the hospital over the weekend after recovering from pneumonia. I protested harshly and we both over-reacted in turn, which is usually how these stress-induced arguments take hold. As it turned out, we soon apologized and teamed up to clear the driveway just in time to relocate our other two vehicles before more heavy limbs from the big maple crashed down. Old \u201cSimon Kenton\u201d is taking a horrendous splintering, and the worst may be ahead, if the wind picks up. I\u2019d dodged a bullet with one night of \u201cNed\u201d sitting underneath, but once the knee-jerk emotions were cleared out, I knew we had to get the truck and Bruce\u2019s Corolla over to the funeral home parking lot right away. Too bad we blew our cool for a minute. I shouldn\u2019t have been so tactless with my objections. In fact, by myself, I might\u2019ve been unable to extract both cars in time.
\n     So far, several massive limbs have cracked and jack-knifed to the roof of the house and garage, but none have caused significant damage. The pin oak out front has shed major downfall, too, but the only real damage to property up \u2019til now is one severed telephone wire. The power line looks unharmed, but we won\u2019t have a net connection, even if the electricity is restored, until the broken land line is repaired. Our second phone line is intact, but has no high-speed service. It will be a bitch to deal with all of this when the weather breaks, but we have it no worse than nearly every property owner in sight, and clearly there are some who have sustained severe damage.
\n     It\u2019s a good thing I\u2019ve been reading Two Years Before the Mast,<\/em> or I\u2019d believe that this was true hardship. Nothing must compare to laying aloft in a gale of freezing rain to furl a sail with your bare hands off Cape Horn. Lord, how did they do it? Youth and necessity, I reckon\u2014how it does remind me of the soft life I live by comparison!
\n     One of the first orders of the day was to get the propane camp stove from the attic, so Dana could prepare the hot meals she prescribed for all. I finally went down to the basement and opened the \u201ccrash bucket\u201d to claim its fuel canisters and spare batteries. So long in storage for just this kind of misfortune, the large Rubbermaid tub filled with emergency supplies hadn\u2019t been disturbed or replenished since the Y2K scare. We defied the warning against using the camp stove indoors and set it up in the kitchen, but closed off the room to the rest of the house, keeping the back door open for fresh air. While in use, the kitchen\u2019s temperature was not much different than that outside. Dana is nothing else if not a trouper. She used some poultry that was in danger of spoiling to fix a tasty fried-chicken dinner, and I helped make the mashed potatoes.
\n     We had plenty of drinking water, since we routinely distill our own and maintain several days worth on hand. I dug out my Sony Walkman to listen to local radio reports. Garrard County has no public water. Wal-Mart and Food Lion sold out of bottled water. Inter-County Energy phone lines are out and even the 911 call center can’t make contact with them, due to jammed lines. Reportedly, crews are now closing in on 30 hours without sleep in their efforts to restore power. With the forecast of 15 mph winds tonight, lines could continue to come down again, even after repairs are made. If the current comes back on, I can’t think of anything to do first except distill more water, in case we lose power again. Other priorities? Cook food and run the furnace as long as it lasts. I can presume that downtown Danville will be a priority for responders, but, with the latest news, we may need to face another cold night without electricity before we have the benefit of repairs\u2014maybe two.
\n     As the light begins to fail, I\u2019ll make these last notes of the day. Lamp oil has been added to the lantern and new batteries have been inserted in preparation for another night without power. Radio says the entire twelve-county Touchstone grid is down, with a spokesperson declaring \u201cseveral days\u201d before expectations of wide service. No word from Kentucky Utilities about the city, but I would assume the prospects are better. No more news from Clan. Dana tried to reach Eagle Nest, but no success. Bruce was able to charge a cellular phone battery with his car\u2019s converter. It’s getting too dark to write comfortably, so it\u2019s time for me to be about my duties at nightfall. It will be colder than last night, but the gas is still on. God knows how much it\u2019s costing us to burn constantly like this. My prayer is for a quiet night, and the return of power on the morrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSuch are the trifles which produce quarrels on shipboard. In fact, we had been too long from port. We were getting tired of one another, and were in an irritable state, both forward and aft.\u201d \u2014Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Two Years Before the Mast   IDEAL FOR: Camping, Tailgating, Emergencies     We made it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,66,76,17,78,12,18,29,38,61,36,37,40,44,25,6,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}