Where did Spring go?

This is what we were wondering after baking our pork chops instead of using the grill. It is also what we pondered after we readied our shopping list, drove in horrendous snow through many darkened streets, wondered why firetrucks were blocking the road by Cyprus Credit Union, and finally arrived at the Smith's parking lot only to find they were functioning on back-up power. While we were writing the list, we heard a very large "bang" outside and we seem to think a transformer blew or something. Many, many blocks in Magna were without power. We didn't even try to go into Smith's. There was an employee manually opening the sliding doors to let customers out, but probably not in. We ventured down the street to Ream's instead. They had power and many more customers who had come from Smith's to do their shopping.

After we had settled snug in our beds with our power still working, we were awakened two hours later to a beeping sound. I'm not talking about a quiet beeping like when your cell phone is dying. I'm talking about an obnoxiously loud chirping sort of beep. You know, like the kind when you are testing your fire alarm. Indeed, Weston walked into the hallway to find our fire alarm/carbon dioxide detector on the ceiling beeping. We would silence it temporarily only to find it beeping thirty seconds later. Being worried it might actually be carbon monoxide setting it off (the blue light was flashing instead of the red for fire), we went downstairs to get the CO monitor Weston's parents had given us for Christmas one year. Turns out there was nothing to worry about. The door leading into the garage had been left open and we read in the owners manual condensation due to cold temperatures can cause false alarms. We had to reset the dang thing by turning off the power, unplugging the monitor, taking out the battery, pushing the reset button, then getting it put back together again. It was crazy! And it took us an hour and twenty minutes from the first beep to the time we got back in bed. Thankfully, Ellie slept through all of this. We settled back in bed hoping the worst was over and crossing our fingers it wouldn't beep again.

At 7:20 a.m. Weston woke up abruptly. He had slept in. Why? Because our power went out in the middle of the night and his alarm did not go off. The house was freezing, Ellie wanted to watch Mickey Mouse, and I wasn't sure how long we would be without power. Thankfully, the power was restored within the hour, but seriously, where did spring go?