What Does A Homemaker Do? Power’s Off, 20 Degrees Outside And My Hair Is Wet

January 7, 2010

About 700 Gulf Power customers in Molino lost power early Wednesday morning, leaving many with no heat and none of life’s luxuries like blow dryers and curling irons. So what is the perfect homemaker to do when it’s freezing?

Terri Brown of the Molino Homemakers Club offers the following column…

What does a Homemaker do when it’s 20 degrees outside and the power goes off? You wake up as you hear your middle schooler asking, “ Mom, why is the power going on and off and not coming back on?” I spring out of bed, head for the garage, detach the telephone from the wall, bring it inside and call Gulf Power. Only to find out the power won’t be back on for a couple of hours. I look at the digital thermometer in the house and it reads 55 degrees which is usual for us. Of course it’s time to get the day started with showers, but without all the luxuries we are accustomed to will be a challenge. I grabbed a battery powered lantern from the garage to use in the house. There is no power to plug in the crock pot to heat up the soup I made last night for my Homemakers meeting today. Guess that will have to wait.

terri.gifIt occurs to me to call my husband, have him come home and start the generator. This would surely fix our power problems. He arrives, gets the generator and pulls the rope over and over and over but no luck. Of course it worked every time he tested it before. A fuse must have blown. He says goodbye and heads back to work. We are left with wet heads and it’s still 55 degrees in the house.

The showers were quick as to not use up all the hot water. Make-up was put on in front of a small mirror in the window using sun light. There will be no blow drying hair today using power from the generator. Oh, wait, we can crank the truck, turn on the heater and let it blow through the vents. After getting dressed, that’s what we did.

Just yesterday I was thanking the Lord for a good hot shower on such a cold morning. This morning was no different. The house was exactly 55 degrees according to the battery powered digital thermometer except our power was out.

So how does a homemaker plan for a morning like this? She uses the resources around her and teachers her children to do the same. Make sure you have a phone other than a digital one in case you need to make a call. Use sun light when it’s available. Keep batteries handy for lanterns and flashlights and don’t stress, the power always comes back on.

Comments

6 Responses to “What Does A Homemaker Do? Power’s Off, 20 Degrees Outside And My Hair Is Wet”

  1. Linda Mullen on January 8th, 2010 4:12 pm

    You can also stop and the nearest place that has a hand dryer in the restrooms and dry your hair with the blower.

  2. Lydia T Edwards on January 8th, 2010 4:02 pm

    I have definitely used the Heater in the car to dry my hair before! Then I just put it up and it worked great.There are so many things you can buy now for the cigarette lighter it’s crazy!

  3. Lydia T Edwards on January 8th, 2010 3:59 pm

    Go Terri and Haley!!! Sounds like several power outage days I’ve had throughout my lifetime. After terrible storms, Hurricane’s, Tornadoe’s and more! I will offer just a couple of little tidbits that I learned myself, because I am very prissy and can’t help it. I am honest when I tell you that I will FIND a way to make sure I look the best I can…as for my kids, they are boys, and they get by with a lot less than little girls do.
    I MUST have a warm cloth every morning, to freshen up my face and gently rub my eyes….so here’s what I did! I used the smallest of pots, placed the wet cloth in the pan and held the pan over the large candle, or whatever type of light I was using…it didn’t take long and it worked. I’ve also used the car engine before…if you can believe that! Ladies can be very resourceful don’t you think?

  4. whitepunknotondope on January 8th, 2010 12:04 pm

    “…55 degrees which is usual for us.”

    What are you, Eskimos? That’s WAY too cold for interior temp!!!

  5. Nancy Holland on January 7th, 2010 11:24 am

    Terri made it to the Molino Homemakers meeting, not only looking lovely but with a delicious crock pot of soup and a three layer cake.. Don’t say young homemakers aren’t savvy!

  6. mary n on January 7th, 2010 4:24 am

    yeah thas about all you can do..luckily i have a fireplace..still had to do w/o COFFEE!!! if peoplre out here would not overload thier house as soon as they jump out of bed & crank up the heater so high..we would not have this problem…It’s 4;30 am & all i have going is my coffee maker & the computer( reading news about the weather) My son gets up @ 6 for the start of his day(middle school) He did get a hot shower before the power was out..hinking of getting him up a lil earlier & yeah I’m putting a po of coffee in a thermas this morning..just in case!!!! i had warmth..thkx to fireplace..but i live on coffee…

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under Features, News