Lights Out! By: Alyssa Bray

Assignment: Imagine the power has gone out in your area. Write a journal entry telling how you feel. What electrical items do you miss most?

Friday, 9:00am

Well here we are, on Good Friday, home from school for four days and we get an ice storm! If it was a school day it would have been a no bus day for sure! Oh well. On top of that, there is so much ice on the trees and power lines that our power went out! Well I guess I'll go outside and play with my little sisters until the power comes back on.

Friday, 7:00pm

I've been doing things outside all day with my dad. Our power is still not on so we had to cook dinner on the wood stove. We had soup and hot dogs. It tasted really good. Tonight we are all going to sleep downstairs so we can be together around the wood stove. It's so dark that we have to use flashlights and flameless candles to get around. I hope the power will come on by morning.

Saturday, 8:00am

There is still no power at our house. I am worried that everything in the refrigerator will get warm and go bad. Mom says to keep the fridge door closed. I hope I don't forget that. I would really like to know what's going on around town and if the power company is going to fix things soon.

Saturday, 8:00pm  

Now I am just getting bored. I feel like I have done everything that is fun to do when you have no power. I kind of wish I had the television to watch the news and the weather. I wonder if my friends have power or not. I don't have any WiFi to text them. Maybe tomorrow. My dad is trying to work on getting a power generator going.

Sunday, 9:00am

My mom is sure happy she doesn't have to cook Easter dinner today! We are going to my Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner. We are bringing a change of clothes because they have power and that means hot water! I am looking forward to having a hot shower. We aren't going to stay overnight because my dad doesn't want to leave the farm and animals all night without fresh water. He has to get pails of water from the river for the animals because the well pump runs on electricity too.

Sunday, 8:00pm

So my dad got the generator up and running. We can power our wood stove, fridge and even our TV with it. We watched the news and saw that our area was going to be one of the last regions to get fixed.  I wish that we could have power as fast as those other people. We are all going to sleep downstairs again. Thank goodness it isn't too cold out and the wood stove is good enough for us. One funny thing is that dad has had to get pails of water from the river behind our house to fill up the toilets so we can flush them. Dad has had to work pretty hard during this power outage.

Monday, 7:00am

Today we woke up to the lights coming on because we left some of them on when the power went out! Thank goodness we can eat warm food cooked in the oven again! I am really glad to have our power  back. It was hard not having the electric things we use all the time. I learned we need to be prepared with flashlights, batteries, water and other stuff in case this happens again. But I really hope it doesn't!