another update!

SO. Having slept for a long time, but fitfully, on ellen_fremedon and pocketmouse's couch, I woke up this morning and checked the Pepco outage map and the orange triangle representing my area was gone!, and I heard from wordplay via Facebook that the power was back on at her house, which is generally in the same area as me; so I headed home full of optimism!, and I saw that the traffic light on my corner was on, which was out when I fled last night, so. Yay?

Yeah, no. Brown-out. Guy I passed on the way in says he thinks we've got 110 but not 220, which may be true; whatever we've got, what it gives me is dim lights and enough juice to heat the stove very, very slowly and run the external HD and keep my computer from going to battery, but not enough to run the cable, internet, TV, kettle, microwave, or (really) (refrigerator or) furnace. And no hot water. So I had some breakfast and watched a little Ninth Doctor on the laptop, and then went outside and joined my neighbors in a lot of communal and neighborly digging-out of a lot of cars, so my car is no longer buried in snow and hidden behind a big pile of plow leavings. (For the moment.) Went inside and had some lunch, and some more Ninth Doctor, but things weren't changing w/r/t the brown-out, so I called wordplay, who (with her family) said come on over, so I packed up a bag and hiked over to her place, where they've got a bed and no cat (not that I don't love ellen_fremedon and pocketmouse and the couch, y'understand), and I put my stuff down and immediately took the best hot shower I have ever had.

Listen, y'all. There have been other times I have been scuzzy and gross, whether it be from shoveling snow or long and grueling travel or being sick and bedridden or what have you. There have been other times I haven't showered or even washed my hair in three days. (Friday I had a lazy day in which I never changed out of my jammies. Had I known it would be the last hot water I'd see for who knows how long, I'd have played Friday differently.) But this afternoon, when the hot water at wordplay's hit my shoulders, I very nearly made a really indecent noise; and even as I was drying my face when I emerged, I was just about ready to cry. I've had hot showers I was awfully glad of, before, but I can't think of one I needed more than this.

I illustrate: I was trying to explain this to wordplay, my inability to render my feelings verbally, and she said, "I know the feeling." And I said, "I thought I did, too."

(Ahh.)