Am I spoiled?

Yes!

We were without power -- meaning no electricity, no heat, and no water -- for about 26 hours, and it was 25 hours too long. I hate to whine when there are still peoople out there without heat and it's damn cold outside, but I hated every minute of it. (Well, okay, candles in the bedroom when you're snuggling to share body heat is kinda nice.)

Every winter we try to get a little bit better prepared for bad weather. A few years ago we got snowed in for a long weekend, with no power and, worse, no food but canned soup and stale crackers. Blech. So we began stocking up on bottled water, for both us and the dogs, and foods that actually tasted good cold. Then, after another winter storm with four or five days without water and every dish in the kitchen dirty, we also began buying paper plates, foam bowls, plastic silverware. Then, tired of cold food when the weather outside was frightful, we bought a propane camp stove.

But we still got caught this time without a provision for heat. Oh, we bought a small propane stove, but this is the first time we needed it for more than a few hours and it wasn't enough. It took thirty minutes to gather the nerve to crawl out of my warm bed heaped with covers this morning for a dash into the bathroom, then to throw on heavy clothes.

Now, the really ridiculous thing is we have two fireplaces in this house, and I usually spend a fair amount of each summer cutting up trees. After one cold-without-heat weekend last year, friend Linda asked, "What did you do with all those trees?"

I, uh, burned them.

"In 100-degree weather? Instead of saving them for firewood?" She followed that with a verbal smack upside the head.

Well, after this ice storm, I'm going to have plenty of firewood for next winter. We lost dozens of branches and probably three or four trees will have to come down.

And we're going to stay warm when the next frigid spell takes out the electricity and, with it, our heat. I'm calling the firewood people tomorrow. Rachel10:49 PM