On the plus side, I finally got to live out my dream of becoming one of the Boxcar Children this morning. By which I mean for some reason I've always had it in my head that the Boxcar Children were in constant search of water (via streams or melting snow) and thus anytime I've ever crossed a stream and/or gotten even slightly creative about a water source, I'm immediately some illustrated girl from the mid-90's, there with my three siblings, holed up in a boxcar, really roughing it.
Anyway, apparently we had some sort of ice storm last night. This was unbeknownst to me, except that Murgy woke up in the middle of the night barking, there wasn't an intruder (phew!) and then for the rest of the night we heard strange noises outside (apparently: branches falling). It was extremely quiet in our house this morning - quieter than usual, that is, which is: really quiet - which it turns out is because our electric baseboards were not doing their normal clanking (apparently: they were off).
At some point in the daylight, Garret woke up and reached for his phone, which he noticed was not connected to the internet. I heard him click on the lamp, which didn't go on, and then he said, "Uh oh... we don't have power."
The branches outside were really pretty and covered completely in ice. That much was good. And actually, this was all fine, because I thought, "Well, I'll sit by the fireplace and write sans internet - I'll get a lot done!" Or at least, this was all fine for the two seconds before I remembered my deep, unwieldy, tireless (lol - pun alert!) coffee addiction.
So really, this is a story about coffee addiction.
Coffee addictions are all fun and games - delicious, warm, comforting fun and games - until your power goes out. And I don't even use an electric coffee maker - I use a french press. I think in some ways that made me think I was immune to things like power outages. That my coffee addiction was untouchable.
But french press or not, I do use a coffee grinder to grind beans (electric) and an electric stove (duh electric) and water from a faucet, which here is apparently electric. Or, the pump that brings the water is electric. I have a theory that this is to prevent the many unattended ski chalets in my neighborhood from having burst pipes in the event of an ice-related power outage (like today). This is a theory that I could easily verify by asking either my landlord or the homeowner's association, but honestly I'll probably just keep it a "theory" because it makes me feel like a sleuth (on any given day, I'm a little Boxcar, a little Nancy Drew, and a little Babysitters Club).
So - no water, no beans, no heat source. But wait! There is always our propane stove -- that thing gets pretty hot at the top. And we have a teapot, and tea - not ideal, but it's better than nothing. Water... water... come on, Lauren - think like a boxcar! Oh! I know! We'll just grab some snow.
Well, the snow was all covered in ice, but there was a lovely icicle just outside our door that was literally streaming water. Like a faucet of love from Mother Earth herself.
So Garret got a glass and held it right under this lovely stream of water.
Now, that water was obviously ice cold, but whatever, it was water. We put it in the tea pot, and put the tea pot on the stove - as in, the stove that heats our house.
In a matter of two hours, the water did actually reach a temperature of "warm". It was not boiling and so maybe I shouldn't have drank it, but have I mentioned that I'm addicted to coffee? Which means - I'm wholly dependent upon caffeine entering my bloodstream on a daily basis. Which means that when it doesn't, my brain shrinks, which hurts! So with warm icicle water, I made myself a chai latte with some chai powder we had from Trader Joe's. Ah, sweet, spicy, lukewarm relief. Welcome to my system, caffeine.
I was waiting for the burst of energy that I was counting on from the chai latte when a strange screeching sound was heard throughout the house, followed by a gleeful yell from Garret - "WE HAVE POWER!"
By the time I started filling the teapot with tap water, Garret already had the (electric, cooking) stove burner on high, preparing to boil the water as quickly as it possibly could. Beans were ground, the french press was prepared. Sighs of relief were heard. Thank you, Mother Earth, for turning our electricity back on (uh...?).
So, as I prepare to get up to pour myself a second cup of coffee (omg it's 2pm how is this happening I have gotten nothing done today) I say: that is the non-victorious story of the time we woke up in a nice house that didn't have power, on a day when we had no where to be, but we whined and complained the whole time anyway because there wasn't any coffee (poor us).
Oh - and though this might all in a narrative sense point to the idea that maybe we should cut back on coffee consumption so that we're not quite so dependent, I'm far too in love with coffee to think that way. Instead, I'm planning ahead: I'm going to grind some beans ahead of time so I have a stash of ground coffee, and I'm going to get one of those big jugs of water to keep on hand so we don't have to use icicle water (though, that was pretty fun).
Favorite Morning Quotes:
- "Is the water warm yet?"
- "Do you think we could grind the beans ourselves?" "Um... maybe if our mortor and pestle was bigger."
- "Do you think I could just chew a coffee bean? I mean, I've eaten chocolate covered ones."
- "Is the water warm yet?"
- "Is the power back on yet?"
- "Man, I want coffee!"
P.S. [Edited at 4:53 To Add] I think the ice storm itself is over, but now it's super windy out, so every time the wind blows, a million little tree branch ice cubes come flying at our house! It's so scary! I mean it's fine, we're fine, but YIKES! What an odd noise.
.lsm
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