Dutch, the power it takes me to charge my cell phone a couple times a day on my generator is negligible.
I know everyone is very concerned about me so I'll provide an update. I am now over 3.5 days without power. The temperature has been low each day with a high in the low 50's and the low going from the low 40's into the mid to high 30's last night and over the next few days. My house has been holding steady at around 58 or 59 so I'm hoping our anticipated high today of 54 spikes a bit to around 57 or so as it's supposed to be sunny and my thermostat temp usually rises 3-5 degrees warmer than the outside temp.
About 20% of my town has their power back and even less have it in my county. I have plenty of food and a good amount of water, especially considering the lines in my area haven't been compromised. I have to fill my generator up about four times a day using a little less than a gallon each time and every morning I wake up at around 5am, refill the generator, go to a gas station and wait online for a couple hours and refill my truck and five gallon container even if they already are about 90% and 40% filled respectively. I wouldn't be so crazily diligent about it but I need my generator for my sump pump as I really prefer it if my basement doesn't take water, not even a little bit.
I have no hot water so it's been one cold shower a day for four days now. My days have pretty much consisted of sleeping at night, doing the gas thing in the morning, doing housework or errands that need tending, keeping up with my fantasy basketball and football teams via my phone, watching a movie or two on my DVD player, making sure my generator always has gas, playing Scramble Free on my iPhone with MsSerp, and listening to her fill me in on which gas stations or businesses have reopened, how long the lines are, how many homes do or don't have power in our town, county and state, as well as the anticipated weather which could be the worst of it all that virtually no one has mentioned in articles or other media outlets I've been following. What am I talking about you ask? The Nor'easter that is set to hit us Tueaday. It could be rain, it could be snow. They don't know just yet. But either way this 30's spell should continue which is gonna suck, and this could cause a lot of people who've had their power restored to lose it again.
It's pretty crazy. Maybe 25% of businesses are open. Those who are sell out of all the important **** very quickly. Gas is a bitch to get and pretty soon the places that do have it may very well have empty tanks without a truck in sight for days or even weeks. And if this possible storm is bad, it could even get worse.
But all that said, I personally am okay so far. I think we'll get power back today or tomorrow and if we don't, Sunday brings football and I can just find some bar to go to watch the games. If I don't have power by the time I wake up on Monday, and the storm appears as if it could be bad, then I'll be concerned and on edge. But as of now, the whole powerless process is just tedious and monotonous. And chilly.
