Oklahoma Dreaming: Freeeezing!
by Donna Schoenkopf
I am at Lynn’s house. She is my sister-in-law. She is the widow of my brother, Davey.
She is family.
Her house is warm and comfortable. She has lots of visitors and overnight guests. Her house is a welcoming place.
I am sitting in a blue armchair in the front room. This room was Lynn’s mother’s living room until she died, not too long ago. Her name was Olga Carol Harper. Everyone called her Carol. I used to stay with her sometimes if Lynn or others in the family couldn’t.
I liked her very much. She told interesting stories about her life, singing in a trio over the radio in the 30s and 40s, and about being a Christian. She was a Presbyterian. I eventually told her I didn’t believe in God and why I didn’t. She told me she’d pray for me and she meant it in the sweetest possible way. That was nice.
She loved to read. And even when things were very muddled in her head she would read the paper out loud, beautifully, and I think it settled her mind to hear her own voice saying intelligent and beautifully constructed sentences. She would read even after her confusion with names and happenings had overwhelmed her.
I have been here in Lynn’s house for three days because there’s been a freeze, followed by a blizzard, with an ongoing electrical blackout at my house.
It’s colder than a witch’s tit over there.
(Carol would be nonplussed to hear me use the word tit.)
I have had three long days of dealing with ice and snow and mud and muck.
I shall begin at the beginning.
Four days before the storm the warning came that The Big One was heading our way. Prepare yourselves, the warnings said, and having just been through one blizzard a short time ago and a “freeze of the century” two years ago, (my first winter back in Oklahoma) I was not taking things lightly.
The first thing I did was make arrangements with Neighbor Jim to park at his house the night before the storm because I got snowed in the last time we had a blizzard. “Of course,” he said. He’s great.
I calculated my low cash reserves. Not only was a storm coming, but I had a Perfect Storm of financial bad luck. The impending weather storm was coming at the end of the month when cash is low, and to make matters worse, I had unforeseen expenses, leaving me with JUST enough to finish off the month. I had to plan just right.
Two days before the storm I went to a PACKED grocery store to lay in supplies if the roads were going to be impassible. Everybody had the same thought. I had never seen so many people there before.
I bought a week’s worth of stuff, carefully counting my pennies.
I was only able to buy $10 worth of gas because of the aforementioned low cash reserves. That gave me half a tank, taking me 200 miles or so. (I have a 2001 Prius. LOVE that car!) But I found I was having to drive a lot and I watched in horror as the gas indicator dropped slowly.
One day before the storm, I went out to the car to drive to town and found my left front tire separating its rubber outer casing from its innards. (So THAT’S why I had had a shimmy for a few days…)
So off to Clemence Tires for a new one. I wrote them a check—$64.07 for a new tire, balanced, out the door.
Uh oh.
First Day: The Freeze
John and I watched the rain turn into ice as it froze onto everything it touched—trees, lawn furniture, barbecue, bushes.
I cooked some brown rice and chicken, John’s favorite, made a nice salad, and we had a delicious dinner.
John computered and I watched politics on television. Very cozy. We can do this storm nicely, thank you very much.
Then the lights and television flickered. Hmmmm. Time went by. They flickered again. And then about 5:30 in the afternoon, just as dusk began, everything went off.
And then I realized that all the groceries I bought were useless. They all needed to be cooked. On the stove. The ELECTRIC stove.
I had forgotten about the inevitable blackout that happens during a freeze.
I would soon have a bunch of raw, defrosting meat in the freezer.
We sat there. It wasn’t dark yet. The house was still warm from the furnace heat. We laughed and joked about the situation. John kept saying the electricity would be right back on. He’s such a city boy.
But I knew better. The last freeze two years ago blacked out everything for several days and in one case I heard of, ten days.
But let John have his dream.
It began to get cold in the house as it got darker. The rain and sleet continued. I got out the candles and flashlight.
Damn. The flashlight didn’t work.
But the candles did.
John couldn’t go on the Internet with no electricity, but he could play solitaire and play music on the computer using its backup battery system.
I broke out a deck of cards and set a bunch of candles in glass jars on the dining room table.
It began to get colder. We played 500 Rummy. I had fantastic luck. (You know what they say, “Lucky at cards, unlucky with electricity.”)
Then the battery ran down on the computer. The house was dark except for our flickering candles. And we were freezing. We climbed into our respective beds with our day clothes on and started reading back issues of The Nation magazine.
It was 8:30 pm.
By nine we were asleep.
Day Two: The Blizzard
Che the Cat woke me with his usual 5:00 am morning wake-up call, by dancing on my head and bed.
I got up, fed him and the dogs, groaned because it was FREEEEEEZING in the house and I realized we also had no coffee.
I let John sleep, but by 8:00 he was up, too.
And he was not happy.
He had been SURE we’d have the electricity on by now. And he wanted coffee, too.
He grumbled around for a while and then I called Lynn. Asked her about her electric situation and she said that they had had a break during the middle of the night but everything was rosy and please do come over until you get yours back on.
So John and I locked the dogs in the bathroom. (They had begun chasing my car out onto Killer Highway 177, endangering their lives as well as the motorists’ who passed by, so now they have to stay inside until I get home.)
We grabbed our coats and headed to Neighbor Jim’s to get the car.
It was frozen solid. At least an inch of ice sealed it shut. John got a lesson from Neighbor Jim in ice-scraping while the defroster worked furiously and then we headed to Lynn’s for coffee and what I hoped would be an afternoon of coziness followed by my house being re-electrified.
When I got to Lynn’s I called my electric company. They didn’t have good news for me. Would probably be a couple of days until the lines could be repaired because it had snowed five inches and five more were expected.
Oh, great.
Lynn fed us a delicious lunch and dinner and we watched television and talked and were warm and safe. And went to bed.
Day Three: The Blizzard Continues
I called Neighbor Jim and asked him to let the dogs out of the bathroom and feed the cat. He was kind and gracious and walked through the snow to my house to save the day. What a great guy.
Lynn and Jared and John and I were nice and snug. But as I watched television, a newscaster was reminding people to let their water drip so that their pipes wouldn’t burst.
Awwww, crap! I forgot about the pipes!!!
I decided to try to go home to check the pipes and let the water drip, if it hadn’t already exploded all over the house.
Jared and John decided to go back with me, but the snow was so fierce we couldn’t get down the road very far. We turned around and went back.
After some hours the snow let up and I got back in the car and drove to Neighbor Jim’s to check in. He and his grown son were hunkered down in his living room, gas burners on the stove warming the house and hurricane lamps ready to go later that night. We had some laughs and stories and I thanked him profusely for his kindness. Then I wrapped up again and walked down the snowy road to my house.
Diego the Dog was THRILLED to see me, Che the Cat was freaked out under the bed and couldn’t believe his good luck that I was actually home. Angela Davis, the Neighbor Dog, had gone back to her original owners and was frolicking in the snow with her kids.
I washed the dishes, made my bed. John called and wanted me to bring back his cigarettes. (I HATE cigarettes!) I let the dog out, said good-bye to the cat, and walked back to my car, which was parked at Jim’s because the snow was still too deep at my house. And it was STUCK!
Awwwww CRAP! So Neighbor Jim dug me out and I began the drive back to Lynn’s.
Ooops. The gas indicator started blinking. I was running out of gas. For crying out loud!
So I made a run to the gas station, but when I got there I saw NO CARS there. I went inside to the clerk and asked if she had gas. She smiled and said yes, she did. I felt like a million dollars. Gave her $10 and went back outside to fill up.
But the little gas “door” wouldn’t release. It was frozen shut. I used my keys to scrape around the edges but still no luck. I got back in the car, fuming. Arrrrrggggghhhhh! After some venting I got back out to retry opening the gas thingy.
It had popped open by itself. The whole world brightened. Isn’t it amazing how little things can make the whole world a happy place?
Bought a roasted chicken and some chips and Coke, picked up John, and went back to the house. We ate our lunch, listened to NPR on the battery-operated radio.
NOW things were going my way!
I swept the floor and washed the dishes in cold water and turned the faucets to drip. Things felt settled and serene.
Then John’s friend picked him up and I gathered my toothbrush and pajamas and shampoo and a clean change of clothes and my laptop and went back to Lynn’s.
And here I sit, typing this to you, Dear Reader, snug and warm with my dear Lynn, in her sweet, warm, cozy house.
Tomorrow a hot cup of coffee.
And we shall see what the day brings.
donna@fourstory.org
Comments
You can really play cards without a computer?
Are you pulling my leg?
Heard on the news the storm that hammered us here had moved on to your neck of the woods, but this time with snow. Brrrrr. One of the things that I find so disconcerting when the lights go off is that odd mental shift you have to make from comfy, boring,usual, everyday, same old same old into a constant WTF??? while waiting for shoes to drop (the lights to suddenly come back on, yes? no? now? when? so you get all your survival gear out and, blink, they’re back on WTF?? or you get all the candles and lights out and hunker down and think, O.K. any time now but it stays dark so WTF!! So you’re totally off balance, having to move out of your sleepwalk mode and into the new. Unsettling and after a while annoying then if things get worse, scary.
Since I suspect we’re gonna be heading into more of this 100 year mode vis a vis the weather, I’d suggest investing in some Coleman camping equipment; lights, camp stove, tent heater, etc. Might come in handy. (I presume you don’t have gas lines running out that far, but what about installing a butane tank and get butane deliveries? Then get a butane stove and heater so at least you’d have heat? ‘Course, that’d cost an arm and a leg I suppose. Wonder what solar pannels would cost.)
Ah, it’s a problem, trying to figure out what this weather is gonna do. With global warming, I guess we’re all heading into a century of WTF. Stay warm.
2010-02-03 by Ann CalhounWarm Hermosa hugs to our darling Ice Maiden!
Am Still sober and happy.
Love to John! (we worship his brain)
(and yours)
PS.....Is this the same Oklahoma in which I spent eleven years getting uneducated??????At the Theta House? On Boyd? At the Drama Hilton? THAT Norman??????? and on Fairie Queen Lane? (were you there when Bill and I bought the old Parkington house? At the Monterrey? at Rickners? At the Book Loft? Oh, the memories keep flooding back....Budd Davisson grabbing my hand and pulling me into THE GOLDEN CUE to hear a song on the juke box by a new British group called THE BEATLES....Jody Bateman reciting all Dylan’s lyrics.....
Obviously once THAT memory door is unlocked, they just keep on coming.....
What the hell was Phil’s, who owned THE BOOK LOFT, last name....remember he had a lesbian wife, the first girl on girl kiss I’d ever had....those were the Rick Levendozski days....and the Bill Stitt days.....younger but not better days......
love and warmth.....
Over the rim of a hot cup of coffee is the best way to look at the winterscape. Fortunately, the only ice problem I have is that it melts too quickly in my Margarita. Here’s a warm hug.
2010-02-02 by Don