Rolling Blackouts!

We were under a state of emergency yesterday and having rolling blackouts--electricity cut twice for an hour in the morning before I even went to work and twice after I got to work.

People would look at us like we were crazy that we couldn't check them out when we have NO ELECTRICITY, standing in the dark, and when are we going to have the electricity back on? One lady absolutely threw a tantrum, hit me when she slammed her books on the counter because at that point our lights were on, but our computer server went down at the main library where they were pitch black, and it knocked out ours. About twenty minutes later, we were plunged into darkness too.

Okay, folks, GET A GRIP. Getting a library book for your kids OR yourself is not a life and death issue!!! Play games, make up stories! Jeesh!

I do have to say that most everyone was very nice and understanding. But one man was going to call the electric company and give him a piece of his mind.

Having some electric off for a while means we have some electric on, which is a LOT better than having NO electricity at all.

This morning we're supposed to have more rolling blackouts and though I left my water running, my hot water faucets were frozen in one bathroom and the kitchen. I'm working to defrost them now.

When I lived in OK, we had the worst hard freeze ever. Froze back hedges that had grown there 25 years. In Texas, my folks had the same freeze hit them, destroyed the vegetation, froze their pipes, but they also lost their electric for 4 days. Now that, is bad. In another location in OK, our pipes froze and I used a hair dryer to warm them, but it was bad news. The pipes had split during the freeze and then I had a flood. And couldn't get the water valve cut off. It was frozen. And Christmas Day. Plumbers do not work on Christmas Day.

A friend came over and cut it off for me, and his wife helped me to mop up the water while I had a 2-year old clinging to my leg and a 5-year old following me everywhere, wondering why momma was so worried. We had no water until we could get a plumber out!

I just hope that the pipes, when they defrost, don't crack. I wouldn't doubt the turn off valve is frozen.

We're just not weather proofed for cold weather like this, because we rarely get it--maybe once in a decade, if that. The banks outdoor drive-through terminals were frozen. Our back door security lock to the library was frozen. We discovered: there are no emergency lights in the staff bathrooms, and the women's bathroom emergency security light wasn't working.

And none of our flashlights at work worked. :)

A patron said she was in a restaurant and they locked them in when the lights went out. No one in. No one out. Another said he was at a burger place when everything shut down and a man started swearing up a storm. It's interesting to see what people do in a mini-crisis. It's hard to believe what would happen if it was really bad.

We're supposed to have snow today, and we're supposed to have rolling blackouts, and it's my late night. *sigh*

How's your day going???

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com