Twas a week before Christmas and all through our house, not a heater was stirring, for ice coated us now. The dirty wet socks were hung by the wood stove with care, in hopes that PSNH would soon be there.

The beauty of the ice in the trees overshadowed the destruction it made to the pines and softer hardwoods.

The family was all curled up in blankets on the living room rug, while visions of warm places kept them nice and snug. While mom in her sweatshirt, and I in my stocking cap, were snuggled up for a long winter’s nap.

My son, Brandon and "Penny" our Golden Retriever watch tv powered by an inverter and marine battery from my boat.

When out in the woods, there was such a clatter, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, flipped open the blinds, just in time to hear “smash.”

I’ll let you make up the rest of this Christmas poem. If I learned anything from this ice storm and power outage in New Hampshire, it’s that I have no desire to go winter camping.

Like many, many others in southern New Hampshire last Thursday night, I awoke to the sounds of “crack, crack, thud” coming from the trees and woods around my house. As the ice built up on branches, trees snapped like toothpicks and fell to the ground.

When the sun came up Friday morning and the damage was evident, out for a walk I went to see how the neighbors were doing.  Trees downed wires on our street, and travel was halted until later in the day, when a snowplow driver sliced up the big trees, so that we could drive over the wires.

Cell phones were our only contact with the rest of the world, as our electricity was out, and so was the water pump. The only heat we had came from a small wood stove in the basement. We filled every jug we could find with water at my wife’s workplace. We had cases of drinking water that my son uses for sports, but the toilets needed water as well to flush.

Our Golden Retreiver "Penny" guards the water supply

Have you ever had grilled porkchops for breakfast? Cream-of-Wheat tasks pretty good too, cooked on the grill’s burners. As our meats in the freezer thawed, we used up some of it before throwing the rest away. The stir fry wasn’t too bad either, using the shrimp and turkey fillets up.

My wife, Nancy cooks stir fry on our gas grill in the dark.

With our power back on today, there was no need for the boat batteries and inverter I brought inside to power up my son’s tiny television. Who needs electricity, water and heat when you can watch the Patriots, while tucked under a pile of blankets on the livingroom floor. There was plenty of cold beer on hand, kept cool in the porch.

Even with all the inconveniences we had, there were good times too. Friday and Saturday evenings were spent at our friend’s home, where a generator kept the heat and lights on. Card games and Dominos occupied our time there.

Now that this huge distraction has dampened the holiday season, it’s time to get back into the Christmas spirit!

-Bob Hammerstrom

bhammerstrom@nashuatelegraph.com

Tags: Auburn, bob hammerstrom, damage, electric, electricity, Football, heat, ice, lines, Nashua, New England, new hampshire, NFL, outage, Patriots, power, PSNH, storm, television, trees, tv, winter