I've got the power (or not...)

Our blog project group has once again changed by one member, but I'm still calling it Blog Project 3.0. The newest member is Darwin Shrugged, a friend of Froggie's. I recently got to know her better through "52 Stories" and I look forward to what she has to say on the upcoming topics.

This week, Froggie chose the topic: It's all a matter of perspective. Think of a story that on the surface seemed to be seen a negative situation. Tell us that story. Then, tell us that same story but tell it from a positive point of view.

First, read what everyone else had to share on this topic:
Darwin Shrugged
Froggie
Moma Rock

This past weekend, our heater stopped working. It happened on Shabbat, so we couldn't even do anything about it. We spent some time out of the house, between going to shul and hanging out with friends. Afterward, we turned on space heaters and started up the fireplace. We spent most of Sunday out of the house, as well, and also did the space heaters and fireplace combo otherwise. A tech from the heating company came on Monday and said that it's more than just a small fix. They came back on Tuesday and learned that the thermostat and blowers are not communicating. They're supposed to come back today with the right parts to fix everything, provided the parts came in on time, so I'm hoping I'll come back to a warm house after work. My in-laws are supposed to visit this weekend, so planning around a broken heater has put all plans up in the air.
I'm just thankful that it wasn't during the coldest weekend of the year, thus far. And that we have friends who have offered their homes and/or extra space heaters. That's definitely a perk of living in a close-knit Modern Orthodox community. Neighbors really look after each other.

We are powerless:
In any case, this situation is small potatoes compared to the great power outage of 2012. It happened during Shabbat at the end of June. Our cousins were in town from Chicago and had Shabbat dinner with us. Then, they left to go back to their hotel. They stopped back in momentarily to use the bathroom. After they left the second time, a huge storm started up and a few minutes later, the power went out. Our cousins were out driving in this mess and had to navigate around fallen trees without much light to go by. It was very hot out and the storm was incredibly freaky...loud, tons of lightning, etc. I thought the end of the world had decided to come early.
The next day, we still were powerless. The problem was that we were having guests over for Shabbat lunch. We weren't supposed to open our refrigerators or freezers to retain the cold air as long as possible inside. However, that's where all our food was kept. I was hoping that everyone would decide not to come over after all, but then realized that they didn't prepare food at all, thinking they were going to lunch on a regular Shabbat afternoon. So everyone came over and we quickly got all the food out, minus the cholent that had gone bad. It was hot inside the house, the food was cold, and the beverages were warm. Not a very comforting combination. After our guests went home, the rest of the day dragged by, as it was summer and Shabbat didn't end until very late in the evening. Not like we could do anything after Shabbat, given TV and Internet weren't an option. The kids ended up sleeping in the guest room, since it was cooler downstairs. We slept in the basement, which was very dark without any windows.
It was still hot the next day, so we decided to get a hotel room. We stayed there until Tuesday morning, when we had to get back to work, even though schedules were off because there wasn't power at the camp facility and things had to be moved around. We hung out around the area, going to the mall and out for dinner. Since there was still no power when we got home, we packed up again to go to a different hotel.
Meanwhile, we had to get rid of all our food from the refrigerators and freezers. That meant food that hadn't even been opened yet. I was traumatized by this experience and the idea of losing a lot of food again still freaks me out to no end. It wasn't just a few items. It was over $1000 worth of food and our insurance company found some loophole so that they wouldn't have to cover it.
When Hurricane Sandy came around, you can bet we were prepared for a power outage...

Power to the people:
The night of the big storm that took out our power was spent entertaining our cousins who came in to visit from Chicago. It was so nice to see them and they were great with our kids. They enjoyed our cooking and loved our new kitchen. I felt bad that they had to drive to their hotel in a storm, but thankfully they were safe and they had stories for later. Also, our house wasn't damaged by the effects of the storm, which was a relief.
The next day, our guests came over for Shabbos lunch. We had food available to serve them, even though it was cold. It actually tasted good that way. I had made a lemon cake for dessert, thinking that the ice cream pie wouldn't be enough for everyone. Good thinking on my part, since we now had a dessert to serve to our guests. Aside from the heat, we all had fun sitting around the family room (which was on a lower floor, so it was cooler) and chatting with our guests while the kids played together. Later, we played games with our kids to keep them busy. Thankfully, the downstairs was cool enough for all of us to sleep.
On Sunday, we decided to get a hotel room and went to a somewhat nearby town. There was a big outlet mall nearby and a Wal-Mart next to it. I stopped at Wal-Mart to get swimming items and some extra summer clothes, as well as toiletries. (I was in a rush to pack and forgot some items.) Then we went to lunch by the hotel and went swimming for the rest of the afternoon. The kids had a blast and it felt nice to cool off in the pool. Later, we all went out for dinner. It felt like we were having a staycation. Due to the power outage, work and camp were closed on Monday, so we stayed at the hotel for another day. Oddly enough, the hotel lost power for a while. We spent most of the day at the outlet mall and I got some good deals on clothes and shoes, as well as some items for the kids. Then we went back to the hotel for more swimming before going out for dinner and then frozen yogurt.
We had to get back to reality on Tuesday, but I had to take off for the afternoon to pick one of my kids up from camp early. Then we went to the library for a while where he got to play computer while I got some other stuff done with their somewhat spotty Internet coverage. After we got my older son, we went to the mall play area for a while and my husband and daughter met us there. Then we went out for dinner again and came home to pack for another hotel stay. Since it was July third, we didn't have work or camp the next day, either.  The hotel we stayed at this time was top of the line. We had a gorgeous room with these really comfortable beds. In the morning, we went swimming again, before heading to our cousins' house to spend Independence Day with them. We also got a call that morning that power was back in our neighborhood. That night came home to a fully air-conditioned house.
The best part about all of this was that insurance covered our hotel stays and all our meals out during the time of the power outage.