Another night in the dark

I spoke (or wrote) too soon. By 4pm the power was off once more. We had another candlelit evening, playing dominoes, reading, chatting. Once more the world was silent. However it did eventually return at about 11.15pm & this time it’s staying on. I think. However, the forecast is for yet more rain, more storms, in the coming weeks. We shall have to think about stocking up once more with candles, just in case.

Fortunately, with the door man coming yesterday, I had taken a chilli sauce out of the freezer while the power was on, so it was an easy meal to make on the gas hobs. I added some tinned corned beef to it to bulk it out a bit, & some rice & buttered bread to serve with it. Nice and easy even to cook by candlelight.

I’ve just had Linda, our home help, on the phone, asking if she could be let off for today as she’s in chaos at home. She opened her freezer to get food with the result that it has all started to go off. She’s now trying to sort out an insurance claim.

It’s not helped by the fact she’s been worrying about her elderly & disabled clients. One 95 year old in particular she’s worried about, as she’s left him wrapped up in quilts in a dark unheated house. She’s lived with the dread of finding him dead on her next visit. I’ve told her she ought to get all such clients registered with Electricity North West. They’ve been ringing us regularly to let us know what was happening & offering help of any sort – candles, generators, gas fires, whatever I needed. As it happened I didn’t need help but this gentleman sounds as though he needed help desperately. Hyperthermia is a killer. Fortunately it’s not been as cold as it could have been. For that matter Social Services would have got him temporarily into a home for the duration.

Meanwhile the man who came to look at the door agreed there is a problem, He thinks there's a manufacturing fault in the door. There’s water inside, dripping out of the bottom. It rained again last night. The kitchen floor got wetter. He’s coming around again to take the door bottom off, turn it upside down & drain as much water out of it as possible. He’s hoping that will ease the problem until something more permanent can be done to solve it. The manufacturer’s engineer is unfortunately on holiday until mid-Jan so won’t be able to come to see the problem until then. Gary, our man, is contemplating whether they shouldn’t just replace the bottom of the barn door in the meantime, but as he’s not sure of the cause of the problem – it could be to do with the low wheelchair threshold – he’s not convinced that would solve the problem. Watch this space.