Once upon a time, Mother Nature had a stroke and decided New Jersey was getting off too easy. Sure, sure, there’s tolls on the highways and you can’t bring beer on the beach, but…no scorpions! So, she threw us a heaping scoop of hurricane with a sprinkling of tornado. Nah, she thought, still not cutting it. I know! Earthquake! That seemed to satisfy her for a while, but when October 29th rolled around, she was restless again.
Mother Nature decided she’d start with a smattering of snow. Odd, I thought, but pretty.
Then…BAM!
FULL-ON SNOW STORM!
By the way, that ‘bam’ was the sound of every tree in New Jersey falling on every power line. As the most densely populated state in the U.S., that’s a lot of power lines. The snow was too heavy and the leaves too plentiful; giant branches bowed and then broke.
We weren’t anticipating a true storm (there’s no storm like it on record [for October] since the Civil War), so when it really started coming down and we lost power at 1 o’clock last Saturday afternoon, we headed out in search of a generator and bottled water (we have a well that doesn’t work when we lose power).
We got the last generator, and it was enough to power the fridge. Not the heat or the water. So we waited in the dark. And waited and waited. We blanched at the news that 95% of New Jersey Central Power and Light’s customers would have power restored by the following Thursday, the remaining 5% on Friday. By Thursday?! That was 6 full days away! We had needs! …Like showering for work.
Guess who was in the 5%? Yup. That’s right. 7 days of flushing the toilet with melted snow and creek water later…
I’M BACK!
Of course, I have to return with a bang, so for your viewing pleasure…
Uncle Jesse in costume!!!
There are many like-minded souls out there, which fills my guilty pleasure heart to the brim. For example, I discovered via Twitter that last Halloween Second Husband bought a squirrel costume from Target for his brother’s dog:
Annnnnd this is why Second Husband is about to get upgraded to Soul Mate status. I mean, a squirrel is almost a chipmunk. Does anyone else see interwoven destiny here? …No? Pssh. See if I try to pawn off my leftover candy corn on you this year.
Go Jules Go 
ohmygod .Im hyperventilating with giggles. I had a premonition about this!!! So sorry ot hear you got caught, i did think of you and Pep when they mentioned NJ and then had paranoia when there was radio silence.
Uncle Jesse…. mummy dresses you up out of love.He looks so freakin cute!!!!
Tee hee! That made my day to hear! I think Uncle Jesse was just pretending to look miserable. He’s getting into his surly dog-adolescence years.
The “when seasons collide” photo is fantastic.
Thanks, Joy! I’m glad I took it before the snow really started coming down!
Agreed.
The pups are delightful! Bobby is VERY good-natured but will not tolerate costumes. 😦
I understand with power outages. Living out here (30 miles from the nearest “civilization” & I don’t mean anything but McDo & Walmart, which I don’t patronize…), ours goes out for no reason, let alone good reasons.
We have NO water w/o electricity because we’re our own water & sewage “provider.” one time, a line (w/ 200 year old sycamore) went down on our bridge… We were stuck here (no ability to leave) for 8 days. We managed (thank goodness for beer & diet coke–and I don’t drink beer). We had to haul pond water for flushing (dirty, dead fish & sticks) & luckily grilled anything. We heat with wood anyway but no fan to force the air. Anyhoo
Thank you! I only tortured Uncle Jesse for about as long as it took to take those pictures, LOL
Wow, so, you definitely want to say a few prayers to the power gods. I like beer, but I might not after 8 days!! Not having running water is definitely the hardest part about us losing power.
Dogs in costumes always make me laugh. Partly it’s the novelty of the costume and partly it’s that look of long-suffering submission that the poor pooch wears on their face.
Ha! EXACTLY! This dog lives a better life than most people I know, and yet from looking at that picture you’d think we make him sleep in a litter box.
So sorry to hear you guys had no heat and power for so long! Man, does that suck when you’re shower-less have to walk around with greasy hair and not flush the toilet for days (been there, done that for 2 weeks years ago) Good you are safe and sound– and those pictures are priceless! 😀
You aren’t kidding! I had to plan out when I could get to my parents’ (about 35 minutes away) so that I could shower roughly every 24 hours and be somewhat presentable for work. It was so stressful! Right now I’m tempted to turn on every light in the house. Peppermeister’s head would explode, but hey, the vacuum works [so I could handle the mess].
You poor thing! I thought about you during the storm. We got about 6 inches here in WV where I live. There were lots of power outages surrounding us, but we were very fortunate to remain powered! I would have died without H2O for a full week, because I’m such a prissy butt when it comes to being showered and fixed up. You were lucky to have your parents so close by for a shower!
Uncle Jessie is ADORABLE!! Just as things should be; cute pets dressed as other cute animals! I wish my cats would let me dress them up.
Glad all is back to normal for you!
Thanks, Sprinkles! Wow, I can’t believe you got six inches of snow, too! I’m SO glad you didn’t lose power. I’m definitely lucky to have a lot of family near (or near enough) by that had hot water, if not power! My dad’s school district was closed for the entire week because most of the town didn’t have power. Insane. They’re already out of snow days for the year!
Yes, animals dressed as animals and ice for my vodka. All is right in the world once more. 🙂
The internet just hasn’t been the same without you. Glad everything turned out okay.
That’s a pretty impressive amount of time without power, though. Odd that they specified 95% by Thursday, the other 5 on Friday. Is that the 5% that’s had at least two late payments on their power bill? Didn’t tip the meter reader at Christmas?
I know, right? I figured everyone has been sick with worry, and suffering from cuteness withdrawal.
Usually I tend to think I’m last on lists because people are saving the best for last, but I suspect that that is not the case here… (By the way, we got our NJ Central Power and Light bill the day the power came back on, ha!)
Six days without power for me. We have a large generator, so we fared better than some of our friends. But I love the luxury of a well-lit room.
Yes! Let there be light!! I need to find out what kind of generator you have… We actually have a hook-up in the garage for one, but we need a Big Mama and they’re sold out everywhere.
❤ that you're back! Losing power for that long is the WORST!
Thank you! (And thanks for the shower offer on Twitter, too, ha!) It was sooooooo stressful. Like, not-seeing-chipmunks-for-days stressful.
what the heck did you do with no power or water or heat? i would have cried my way to a hotel that had a generator and begged for mercy. speaking of mercy, uncle jesse is so cute!
Do you know all the hotels were booked?! Generators sold out, restaurants with lines out the door… I think tears were definitely shed when we lost power for six days during Hurricane Irene, but this time we were seasoned veterans. LOL Thank you!! 🙂
I couldn’t help but notice the similarity between Uncle Jesse and second husband’s dog. Hmmm. . .
Ha! Does it make it more or less creepy that it’s his brother’s dog? I was wondering if it could be a wheaten terrier, ’cause I don’t think it’s a labradoodle. That squirrel costume is the SHIZ. Oh! Speaking of over-the-top cute costumes and S.H., you should see Second Husband’s Halloween costume this year – Babar! Can he get any cuter???? (No.) http://www.whosay.com/darrencriss/photos/86551 I could write, like, seven posts about this.
A personal best blog, Jules. I was in almost as many stitches as it took to makes Uncle Jesse’s costume. Love it. – JB
What can I say? That wh-re, Mother Nature, has always inspired me. 😉
Wait… you were gone? haha! I kid. That sounds like a long week of kickin’ it old school with the no power thing.
Your pics are beautiful!
Ha! Funny girl. It was a VERY long week. I’ve been making up for it this weekend with long, hot showers and lots of champagne.
The photos are gorgeous, and the tale of your adventure harrowing. Glad you are back!
Thank you! One of these days I should probably invest in an actual camera instead of using my phone, LOL The photos on your blog are always so stunning!
It was awful in CT too. There are people in my town who still don’t have power. Ugh.
I love the first photo!
and we don’t get many powercuts in the UK, but when we do get them, I hate it!!!
jules
http://andsuddenlyisee.wordpress.com
http://wordshakermag.wordpress.com
Great photos, both of the snow and of Uncle Jesse. And I feel for you with the blackout – we were out for 1 week, with no generator, but thankfully we still had running water. I’ve put up a couple posts about it – some photos, and some ranting 😉 I absolutely love how Uncle Jesse is in the first 2 photos – they were gorgeous pictures already, and he just adds that extra factor to make them really awesome! 🙂
“Once upon a time, Mother Nature had a stroke and decided New Jersey was getting off too easy.”
Hasn’t Jersey suffered enough?
Feline greetings from a Florentine pet shop, we just read your great post
Thank you so much!