Blizzard adventure! Freezing – yes! Fun – not so much

We had a blizzard adventure this week!

Golly Gear is just north of Chicago, which was hit by a blizzard Sunday night/Monday morning. We also live in Skokie, the suburb where the shop is located.

The sound of silence

At 4 o’clock Monday morning, our entire household (two sisters, five dogs, one lizard) woke to the sound of nothing. In our connected world, I don’t think we even realize how much noise, how many sounds, are an intrinsic part of our daily lives. When it all turns off – it’s deafening.

A power outage isn’t the end of the world. We know that. But it’s damned inconvenient, especially when you have a desert lizard and a four-month-old puppy. And the forecast says nothing but below freezing for days.

If it was just us sisters – we’d pack a couple of bags by flashlight and check into a local hotel (with power) for a day. Not so simple with the dogs.

It’s complicated

We make our own dog food. Some eat raw, others cooked. We also keep their systems accustomed to a quality kibble for “just in case” episodes. This was one of those cases. You open the fridge and freezer as little as possible during an outage. So the dogs thought they were having a rare treat – a whole meal of kibble!

We actually didn’t start getting concerned until it was time to go to the shop and the power was still out. Our local power company has, historically, been pretty good about restoring service promptly. Six hours in, the “outage map” told us crews were “being assigned.” The cause of the outage was “severe weather” and restoration estimate was “damage being assessed.”

No way out

Another consequence we sort of forgot about was only having one available car. The other? Securely locked in the unattached garage behind the electric garage door. Oops.blizzard scene

So Fran, having parked on the street, went to see how the shop fared. Fortunately, power was on there, internet was on. We may not have had a good place to live, but we were still in business. Unfortunately, the shop isn’t large enough or set up so we could bring our dogs, not to mention transporting the bearded dragon.

Creativity is key

Meanwhile, Hope was getting creative at home. The temperature was dropping about a degree an hour in the house. She huddled on the couch with five dogs. But when the temperature was down to 61 degrees and there was still no update from the power company, she worried about the dragon. Good husbandry says they shouldn’t get below 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

The only non-electric heat source was the outdoor barbecue grill – under six inches of snow. Hope knocked off the snow and ice, dragged off the frozen cover, and put a pot of water on the grill to heat. She found a couple of hot water bottles. Diogenes (the lizard) got one. Hope and the dogs shared the other.

There’s no people like dog people

Meanwhile – we came to appreciate that we have the most wonderful friends in the world. Hope used a bit of cell phone power to post an update and, within moments, had four friends offer shelter to the whole crew – including the lizard. We’ve said it before and we’ll repeat it until everybody believes – dog people are the best in the world!

But it’s daunting to consider packing up a household of eight souls – even for a night. With still no power company update, we looked for alternatives. And found an indoor-safe, propane heater available at a store just a short drive away.

Blizzard action plan!

Fran loaded up the day’s orders from the shop, dashed off to the store (and the post office) and saved the day!

When Fran & the heater got home, the temperature was 58 degrees and still falling. We got the heater going and Hope went back into the puppy huddle while Fran got back to business. (Taking Hope’s cell phone and charger.)

At 2:30 p.m., with no advance update, the power came on!

Just when Hope and the dogs were starting to feel cozy with the heater, of course. But that’s just fine with us. If/when a blizzard happens again, we’ll be better prepared. Even better when we get an oil lamp, for just-in-case days, like Monday.

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