Sam and I live!  We have no electricity, and may not for another three or four days.  We have no internet access without getting in the car and driving to sit outside a convenience store, looking like a couple of potential thieves casing the joint.  (As a criminal, Sam has the perfect costume, for who would believe a boxer/lab mix would be capable of crime?)  Still, we do survive.

Here’s my post from yesterday, before we discovered the internet:

Monday, 10/30/17

I woke up at 3:18 this morning to a remake of the tornado sounds in “The Wizard of Oz.”  While the Tiny White Box wasn’t shaking, exactly, it was at the least undulating like Jell-O on a plate.  Sam (is a dog) knew I was troubled.  He demonstrated this in the way he humphed at me, rolled over and went back to sleep.  I noticed my phone charger light was out and tried the bedside lamp.  Nothing.  Here I was, alone and powerless in the Great North Woods, wind howling around the Tiny White Box and the sound of trees breaking in the gale.  I considered my options, then followed the model set by my spiritual guide, Sam, and went back to sleep.

When I woke up for the day, I climbed out of bed, put on my robe and looked out the back window.  The storage tent/shed/contraption I’d put together was still there in one piece.  Then I looked out the side window and trees were horizontal that had stood the night before.  Nothing huge and nothing near me, but a mess to be picked up.  The electricity was still out, so I knocked back day-old room-temperature coffee and recognized a series of mistakes I’d made.

When I moved in, I’d known the weather would change, but like the grasshopper in the fable, I’d let the summer breezes of late October distract me from preparing.  Oh, sure, I had a small electric heater in the box, throwing off plenty of heat in the morning.  Until now.  I had a coffee maker and microwave, along with an electric burner to take care of cooking.  Until now.  I had lamps and chargers to keep everything flowing.  Until now.

While I’d brought along most everything we’ll need for the winter, I’d left it packed in the storage tent.  If the wind had been worse and torn down the structure, most of what Sam and I will need could have been blown from here to Contoocook.  After Sam and I went on a combination walk/tour of the destruction, I got down to business.

Today, I mounted the carbon-monoxide sensor I’d bought but not needed, carried in 18 small propane canisters, refilled all the water containers, pulled all the batteries out of the back of a cabinet and turned on the portable radio.  I write this warmed by the small propane heater I’d had stored away, with the lamp burning and dinner prepared over the tiny propane burner.  We gathered all the electrical equipment that needs to be kept fully charged.  It’s now in a box, with a schedule for charging attached.  My phone and backup phone, my computer and backup computer, my Kindle, the Bluetooth speaker, the two battery power packs and both car battery chargers now, like soldiers told to hurry up and wait, sit under our bed awaiting the return of electricity, at which point they’ll each be lined up and filled.  Never again will I worry that my computer is at 32% and that I won’t be able to write for more than another couple hours.

New Hampshire Public Radio says electricity may be out for most of the state for at least a couple days, but Sam and I will be warm and snug inside the Tiny White Box.