A whole weekend has passed, without any electricity, water, warmth, or internet. It's been odd, to say the least. From having a room and a bathroom in which I could do pretty much anything I wanted to, and access to wifi and electricity to run my computer, and music, and make food through a microwave; To sitting in a camper with absolutey nothing but a roof and sides really... It's honestly a shock, though one I like to think I have taken in stride.
The one thing I wasn't prepared for, however, was the winter shock we got. As I was hauling everything into the camper, it wasn't really that cold. The forecast, if I remember correctly, was for a high of 70. Fairly warm for this time of year. All of a sudden, my first night out, it dropped to a temperature so cold I couldn't sleep in the camper. I just couldn't. I was absolutely exhausted from moving everything into the thing, and would have liked nothing better than to sleep all through the night like a baby, and I couldn't. I saw my breath, it burned to have any skin exposed from under the blanket, and I couldn't stop the full body shaking. I ended up coming into Waffle House and staying the whole of third shift there, with a few of my favourite Waffle House employees, and some awesome customers. Well, they were regulars as I am, which really is the point at which one ceases to be a customer. Regulars get away with a lot, and have a more relaxed atmosphere overall. You don't feel pressed to eat and leave, and if you don't happen to leave a tip, your waitress knows it isn't the end of the world, for usually one of two reasons. First, is because they know your home situation almost as well as you do, and they understand you might not be able to spare a handful of change. Second, is that they know you will usually compensate at a later date in some way, or you will be back in a couple of hours anyway, and when you come in every few hours all day every day, they know you don't need to give a dollar a pop.
Anyway, the second night, as if it was possible, was even colder. I saw the breath through my nose, and my nose was so frozen that I couldn't keep it under my blanket to keep it warm, because it wouldn't work under there. It was just as if I had no nose. A strange feeling, for sure. But my dad had come in to town that morning, so we had gone to Walmart and bought a propane stove and two small propane tanks. One tank apparently didn't last nearly as long as my dad said it would. He said it should last at least 6-12 hours, as the two were supposed to last me a full 24 hours. The first tank lasted from about midnight, when I went out into the camper to try and get a little bit of sleep, until just shy of 2:30am I believe. I waited roughly half and hour to 45 minutes before lighting the second propane tank, so I could have a little longer to attempt sleep. It didn't last long either before I heard it pitter out completely. Needless to say, I had very little sleep.
Last night, I had a fairly good amount of sleep. Not a full night as defined by most of society, but definitely a very good amount compared to what I would normally get. Though, whether that was because I waited until it was later on in the morning to go to sleep, or because it was a little bit warmer to begin with that night, I'm not really sure. I was just thankful to get a little more sleep than I had the nights prior. Last night/ this morning was amazing, because I got a ton of sleep. Again, not really as much as a normal person would consider a lot, or sleeping in necessarily but definitely a lot by my standards.
Today was fairly eventful actually. Over the weekend, two men apparently escaped from Blackburn correctional facility, the jail/prison in Fayette County, and almost all schools here in Georgetown were put on lockdown. My sister and the older of the two step-brothers had to get a ride from Ireland, my sisters friend. The younger of the two step-brothers was alright, because for some reason his school didn't go on lockdown. But helicopters and police were all over the place this afternoon between noon and 3-4. I wasn't sure really what was going on, and had heard it was a kid that was kidnapped from one of the middle schools, which obviously worried me a bit since my sister and two step-brothers are in middle school.
Today was also Evan, the older step brother's birthday. I got to go to my mom's house, eat a bite, and got to take a shower AND bake the cake for my step-brother. I also got to decorate it with what limited supplies she had, in the way of icing tips and such. Other than taking the cake pans out of the oven, I got to do everything that had to do with the cake. I was happy. And I felt super excited about the pokemon cards he got, and definitely want to get mine out of storage at some point. It would be cool to actually play a game of pokemon with my cards, since I've been collecting them for... Oh... I don't know, 10 or so years? In all that time I have never ever played an actual game of pokemon. I've collected the cards, and not much else.
So, I'm now sitting in Waffle House, as usual, and have maybe a third of a tank of propane left. My mom gave me two more blankets while I was at her house today, which will be useful for me. I checked on the kitties in the camper, and it wasn't overly cold in there. Their ears were cold, and trying to step over the empty litter bucket I use for putting dirty litter in I sprained my ankle/bruised my foot. I felt fantastic haha.
Long story short, it has been quite the adventure. While I am definitely very eager to get my life moving again, this is alright. It isn't the horrific nightmare I honestly thought it to be. It's difficult, to be sure, but not totally unmanageable.
Life lesson this time: Nothing is ever has difficult as it appears at first glance.
Once you understand the concept and all principles involved, you will have an easy task ahead of you.
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