One year ago we were hit by a wild fire, which ramaged our city and beyond. But it didn't strike us as sudden as this current ice storm. With wild fire, for days we knew it was coming. With this ice storm, it came overnight, and power was cut off out right. When I was young in my hometown, we never had electricity. Lighting was done by kerosene lamp, and cooking with sawdust from a nearby wood factory. We did not feel any inconvenience at all. Besides, this ice stom came just as we were supposed to celebrate the Chinese New Year, when we woke up to find darkness reigning everywhere: the home, the neighborhood, and almost the entire city.

Our modern life relies too much on electricity. Without it, we did not have heating and the Internet, and we could not cook food. Everything touched cold. We had cold breakfast, then cold lunch. In the afternoon, Hong drove over with some bread. They did not have power either. The streets were not hampered by fallen trees now, he said, but there were no traffic lights. He went back and soon returned. They had power at West Salem now, so our daughter-in-law boiled water and cooked a meal for us. How wonderful to have hot water and hot meal after all. The next day, Hong came again with phone charging stations, camping lights and a propane stove. Liqing was finally able to cook a hot meal, and that really tasted wonderfully sweet, warming our stomach as well as our hearts.

A hot meal was really sweet, but what could be sweeter than a sweet son? I called Comcast two times about the Internet outage, and was told that it will not be back anytime soon. At least we can be thankful that we have heating and hot meals.

一年前的山火来势汹汹，但它是一片一片烧过来的。当大儿子带我们“逃难”到小儿子家时，火已经烧了好几天了。但这次的冰暴说到就到，而且一下子断电了。小时候我们小石码是没有电的。我们照明用煤油灯，烧饭用锯木屑，倒也不知道没电的痛苦。我们这里前天（12日，农历初一）开始下冰雨。树木多又温度低（零下），一夜间，树枝攀倒了无数的输电线，就大面积停电了。

现代生活显然过度依赖电力了。所有的盆炉锅灶都插电。曾经有煤气灶，这次搬家也处理掉了。壁炉虽然点煤气，但点火需用电。而且，没有电当然没有网络。一停电，家里的东西，包括被褥，摸起来都是冷的。早餐是冷食。午餐还是冷食。下午，跟我们同城市的大儿子开车过来了。他说大街已经没有树挡路，但交通灯不亮。他们那里也停电，所以只能给我们带一些冷食来。他回去后，他们那里电恢复了，儿媳妇就给我们烧了热水，煮了热面条，大儿子又给我们送过来。这口热水和热面条，吃起来真爽快。次日中午（今天），大儿子又来看我们。他给我们带来充电宝和新买的野营用的灯具和煤气灶。有了煤气灶，丽卿就有了用武之地。我们吃了一顿现煮现吃的面条，肚子舒服极了。

有热食真好，但有儿子才是关键。傍晚（14日，农历初三），电力恢复了，但网络还没有。这篇网页只好等有网络后才发。