I Feel So... Powerless

Actually, not just powerless, but phoneless and waterless as well. Isabel’s done a number on us; we’re back in the stone age, at least for the time being. The power went out sometime last night — I think it was around midnight, but who knows? Alas, this wasn’t an isolated line down, but power’s out all around the county... including the Fairfax County water treatment plant. Which means no clean water. They’re advising everyone to boil their water before drinking for at least 10 minutes, but that advice doesn’t do a whole hell of a lot of good if you’ve got an electric stove. We actually had the thought of boiling water in the fireplace, before realizing that all of our firewood was completely soaked from the storm. I suppose the propane grill’s always a possibility.

Still, we were (okay, Pam was) at least smart enough to stock up on some bottled water, and to fill at least one bathtub up before the whole water purity problem, so we should be all right. The kids are going a little nuts already, and it’s only 10 am. I think we’ll have to get them outside to help with the cleanup, if just to give them something to do — we already ran Murphy’s battery down to 25% playing games.

We actually managed to get a decent amount of house cleaning done yesterday, since we really couldn’t go out. Not that I would have anyway; I’m battling a fairly nasty head cold on top of all this. Figure today’s going to be largely spent cleaning up after Isabel, and we’ll still have the weekend. And then it’ll be time for the mad-scramble catch-up at the office.

Well, I’d better sign off now, before the laptop’s completely drained; it’s in the “red zone” already, and has started spouting “reserve power” warnings. I’ll try to keep everyone posted, but frankly, it’ll probably be after all of this is over. Au revoir.