Just passed the fifth night without power, it is getting very tiring. I only come back home to sleep and staying in office the whole day. I am kind of lucky that still haven’t got sick yet. But I am not so sure if this continues for another week. I couldn’t sleep well at all in these cold nights. The cold air kept waking me up. Even though I stayed in bed much longer than I usually do, actually, more than 10 hours on average, I don’t feel rested after getting up. I slept on a folding bed next to the fireplace for the first 3 days. But I finally couldn’t stand the tiny bed anymore and dragged my mattress from my bedroom upstair last night. It was quite some work but I guessed it was a good move as I don’t know how much longer it will take.
At this moment, there are still about 71,000 homes and businesses without power. And I am one of the lucky one. It is getting bad today as it starts to snow. Fortunately, it seems the snow is not as heavy as previously predicted. So probably I can still head for the office tomorrow (if power is still not yet back).
The fireplace hardly gives any warmth to the house. Apparently it is really just a decoration. The heat escapes immediately out of the chimney. I tried to look for ways to suck out some more heat. First thing I can think of is using a fan. Of course, then I need electricity. I have a rather small fan and I am thinking maybe I can drive it using a car backup battery and an inverter. I had an inverter but got stolen in my car last year. I tried Best Buy and Circuit City but they were all sold out. I went to Walmart and Sam’s Club but they were closed. Then I tried the surge protector. Theoretically, it should be able to drive a fan for 30 minutes. I bought one from Best Buy but unluckily the one I got is too “smart” that it won’t turn on unless it is plugged to a wall power and then unplugged. After these desperate attempts, my laptop cooling pad came to my mind. At least, it has a fan, though it is super tiny. And I can power it with the USB port from my laptop. This time, it works… But I hardly feel any wind coming out of it. I guess I’d better just get used to survive without heat and power.