I am on a well, so I always have to ensure I have jugs of water around. I also make sure I know precisely where backups of all my son's medical supplies are.

Dont know the extent of your nephews disability, but perhaps you could ask your sister the things he enjoys that would still apply in a power outage. Maybe she will bring some things over.

Thinking back ... In general, would building things, be good- I know my DH and I can still while away an hour playing Lincoln Logs. Decks of cards are good for games as well as building a house of cards. Paper and colored pencils = drawing, tic tak toe, hangman, paperdolls, paper airplanes, paper hats(love those), paper boats which then float in a tub and can be pulled be by a string. Two sail boats(maybe with corks) can be blown through a course(constructed of upturned cups and bowls) in a tub via windpower(your lungs) and person with best time wins. Coloring books are not just for kids. Maps are fun to explore. String is for cats cradle. What about checkers? Marbles can be used in many ways. Charades for two? 20 questions? There are some small electronic games that are battery operated, some are single player; simon, bop it, 20Q, perfection.

What about downloading a podcast or audible book - should be able to play those back on ipod or something.

Thanks for all the well wishes. I am not worried for our safety. Everything is or will be charged up.. I have candles but would benefit from a lantern. Typically, we'll see that they are all sold out at this point. I am going to let that go. The last place I want to be tonight is Walmart!

We get these warnings through the winter-- sometimes the worst case scenario sweeps in.. sometimes it's a dud. I am fine if it's just me-- or me and the bf. My nephew adds an extra level of needs though.

Puzzles won't be good for him but thanks for the suggestion. I think I will just need to give up the ipad to him if I lose power. I do have two so if I power them up, they should last a long time. My BILs will be mobile.. so if it gets bad, I'll send him to someone else's house. It's unlikely that we'll ALL lose power.

I am going to embrace the FUN of a good snow and let it come as it will!

Good morning. Our area is forecast to get a wallop also. I have to recommend Uno. It's a simple game and a fun way to kill some time.

Localeater, there are some good ideas! I also thought about building card houses as well as simple games. He has some visual-spacial issues but still i think that could be fun. It's tough because he is an adult-- and knows it-- but he has a lot of limitations. His mom is out of town-- he's with my brother now (out of state) and will be taking the train in before his dad catches a flight (to warmer climates, darn him! LOL). He'll come with electronics but that's about it. I think charades could be fun-- I don't think he'd color but I will have supplies in case. I'll probably pick up a simple board game too.

Thanks all.. sounds like everyone will be prepared! Hope you can enjoy the beauty and forget the inconveniences!

UNO! that works! Maybe Jenga too. I'll make a stop on the way home from work!

Throw a sheet over a card table to make a tent for "camping" outdoors by the fire...

Honestly, I try not to get too swept up in all of the hoopla. How often are they right or wrong?

My DBIL likes to have something to do, too, and played Solitaire on the computer for hours. Using real cards is hard for him, dexterity issues. But along with games, he likes to help out, maybe yours does, too? Could be an opportunity to rearrange your bookshelves, try out new furniture arrangements, or clean behind the heavy furniture and appliances.

DBIL loves hearing about upcoming plans and family stories, and even after telling the same one 20 times he is always ready to hear it again. He can tell it himself, but likes to hear it and makes corrections if I leave something out. When he came to visit for a few days, and we drove him the 10 hours home, he went over every step of the return trip about 30 times (he gets nervous with the unknown, with travel, and with crossing water) and when we traveled he was thrilled to see it all played out just that way.

Also, in your situation where things might be up in the air, that could be stressful for him, so maybe have scenarios set that you can talk about, and if they arise he's ready. Of course, you know your DBIL best!

i always like blizzards as long as the power doesn't go out, because I'm fortunate to have food in the freezer and in the pantry, and no reason to anticipate risking the road. It can be cozy and exciting. (Our last house had a gas cooktop and oven, so we could always cook, and we would put a stock pot of water on the stove, close the kitchen doors, and be cozy warm if the power went out.)

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Anyone else planning to hunker down? Put it in perspective with these two book recommendations:

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This is not Little-House-sweet, it's survival.

The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin. My mom heard family members talking about this devastating 1880s event when she was a girl. Note, this is not a children's book.

We're pretty well set up for power outages, now that we have long experience in dealing with them. We have our hot water boiler and the fireplace insert blower set up so they can be run from the portable generator. If we have hot water & heat, then we can be comfortable for days.

When we remodeled our FR last summer, DH insisted on putting in a dummy outlet that's wired to a dummy outlet in the garage. It's like a built-in extension cord in the walls. We can now run the generator in the driveway, plug it into the outlet in
the garage, then plug our refrigerator into the dummy outlet in the
family room. We don't have to snake long extension cords from the outside into the house anymore to plug in the fridge or a lamp or whatever. The old way meant having to open a window or a door to run the extension cord through, which let in cold air too.

Best wishes to everybody! Hope the storm is a bust.

We're in the south so generally no major power issues, even though 1-2" is forecast for Friday (possibly). We also have a generator so even if the power goes out, as it did for 5-6 days when we had the big tornados in 2011, we were able to cook a little bit, and the weather was mild so we didn't have that to worry about. I'd probably make a big pot of soup though so I could heat it on the gas grill if the power did go out. Lots of things I can cook on my grill so we don't have to eat cold food all the time.

Do you have any big, pretty books your DBIL would like to look through with you? Art, photography, gardening, etc? Even seed catalogs this time of year have interesting plant photographs to pass an hour or so going through. Some even good for a laugh.

If you get a lot of snow, make sure your exhaust vents are clear of snow! Not doing so is what kills people in snowstorms from carbon monoxide poisoning.

It's going to miss us. Bummer.

Kids in the areas to be hit hard are no doubt bumming that it's coming on a weekend. But the sledding will make up for that disappointment!

At my book group last night, one member reported that the nearest supermarket had 8 gallons of milk left on the shelves when she had gone earlier. So I went out early this morning and loaded up on milk (at a different market), the one thing I don't want to be without (our son is a big consumer). We have a gas fireplace and a gas cooktop, so I'm not too worried about losing electricity. I'm not convinced we'll get the heavy snowfall forecasters are calling for, but they certainly seem convinced! Right now they're saying up to 30 inches, which seems outlandish.

Awm03 - can you give a little more information about the 'dummy' outlet? We poked a small hole in the back of our closet and run the electrical cord through it to the generator in the driveway. We shut the overhead garage door and insulate around both sides of the hole so that neither cold air nor fumes can enter the house But your DH's idea sounds more finished. I wonder if it's allowed by Code. Most regular outlets aren't 30 amp and that's what comes off our generator which is why we have a 30 amp cord. Did your electrician install a special outlet?

Thanks,

Maire

I still have snow on the ground from the over 2 feet that was dumped the day after Christmas. I like winter and I like snow but I like when we get 3-6" inches and then it goes away in a couple of days before the next storm. Before storms like that we just charge devices, make sure we have enough firewood that is easily accessible and double check the amounts of animal feed available. Sometimes we grab extra milk just in case the freeway is closed and they cannot get any more in. I find it funny that when those storms come in, the chip aisle seems to get wiped out.

I used to be able to buy this in quarts but I guess they quit making it, so now I buy cases of individual serving size to keep on hand. I give my grandson whole milk, so sometimes am caught without fresh, but these work perfectly. I also pack them in his lunch or give to him with a snack in the car. I also take them when traveling for use in my coffee in hotel rooms. They also come in 1%

They are perfect for storm prep, need no refrigeration for storage and it tastes like fresh milk! Your grocery can order it for you I order mine from my food co-op, or it's on Amazon.

Shelf Stable milk

Edit...whoa! I posted a pic of the box but it was huge for some reason, so I removed it.

I recall shelf-stable milk being pretty common in Europe, wish it were more available here, in quarts.

maire cate, I'll have to ask DH to get the technical details, and he's out today. I sheepishly confess to being more on the design side of the FR reno than the technical side!

Thanks awm. There's no rush. What we're doing works for us but it just seems a little unfinished. We've been thinking about selling in 2 or 3 years so we keep a list of things that should be changed or fixed before we list the house. And we could always just patch the drywall.

DH still talks about having an electrician install a transfer switch. The electrician would isolate those circuits that we want powered by the generator so that all we have to do is plug in the generator and then flip the switch.

That's what we had at our vacation house until we finally installed a whole house generator. What a blessing that turned out to be - it's also completely automatic so now I never have to worry about power outages.

"DH still talks about having an electrician install a transfer switch.
The electrician would isolate those circuits that we want powered by the
generator so that all we have to do is plug in the generator and then
flip the switch."

That sounds like a better idea than our dedicated generator outlet, frankly.

I ran to the store after working out, needed a few things and want to do some baking if we're housebound for a couple of days. You would think the world is coming to an end the way people were shopping - but in all fairness, in this area (western NC) a storm can knock out power for quite a while. We have a camp stove and grill so will be able to cook if that happens and it'll be cold enough that we can put refrigerated items in the garage - hopefully not. We have candles, games, cards - I'm not too worried.

I went to the grocery store because I needed groceries, storm or not. I thought it was only slightly busier than a normal day. The only real difference between today and last Thursday was they have snow shovels for sale. I hope I don't regret ignoring those.

I am in Buffalo so believe me I know storm preparedness! Have snow shovel handy and get boots/outdoor gloves & hats ready to be used. Salt to melt walkways. Cook ahead so you don't need to cook and watch your nephew at the same time. Extra water to flush toilets if power goes out.

If you are going to get ALOT of snow maybe line someone up to clear your driveway/shovel off your roof.

Activities - 20 questions (what am I?), Legos! We love playing legos! Maybe coloring? Hide & seek inside? Hangman?

I love a good blizzard; could do without a LONG winter.

This one will miss us, but no doubt there are others to come later in the season. I always make sure we have enough food in the house. But the generator, snow blower are always good to go with 5 gallons of gas on stand by. We also have lanterns and candles. We have a separate portable charger for the devices. So it's very little inconvenience for us if any.

I hope you're able to enjoy the time with your nephew. I know it will be challenging, but when my daughter was small, I found the times our power went out to be a good opportunity for quality time. 20 questions is a great suggestion especially if he's curious.

Funky, I think that you are prepared with lots of good ideas for enjoying the weekend with your nephew. Well, I did not plan to get out of Dodge soon enough; reports say I will be in the eye of the storm. Friends and I planned to go to Florida for a winter respite. They left today on the auto train; I changed my flight from Sunday to Monday. So, I plan to pack leisurely, read one of the books recommended in the reading thread on my kindle. I have dozens to choose from thanks to the group. I pulled out my knitting basket. There is food and power supplies in case of loss of power. I even arranged for someone to plow my driveway. I could/should work on the new kitchen plan with DH. Really need to finalize plan since DH has started demolition. Oh gee, shovels! It seemed that everyone was looking for shovels and de icer today in the stores. The sales guys were joking that all the first time home buyers were in. I hope that the snow. if it comes as they predict. affords you all a cozy time with no stress. We can compare notes during and after.

Bpath, I just ordered "The Children's Blizzard." I had never heard of the storm before, but living in dust bowl country it does interest me.

BTW, for those of you who do get snow, make sure to start a picture topic!

Thanks for all the suggestions! My nephew is an adult.. while he has disabilities, he is an adult. He functions at about the 8 yr level but he is an adult and likes adult things-- sports, movies, video games. I stream all my movies.. so I have netflix, amazon and comcast on demand available to us. I think some games are ok-- but I need to be careful with them. I did not pick up uno, cards or jenga yet. The day just got away from me. I think we'll be fine.. it may be a very lazy weekend .. but we'll be fine.

I have a bunch of sewing to do (3 pairs of pants lost their hems!) and some little projects... and I could use some extra sleep so lazy works for me!

I'm in MD, just east of the "bulls-eye" so we are supposedly getting anywhere from 1-2' of snow. However, we are also just off the bay, so we are in the "blizzard warning" area and supposed to get awful winds so I fully expect to lose power at some point as we always do, even if we don't get that much snow. We have well water which means no power = no water so no showers, no washing hands, dishes, etc. Come to think of it, I forgot to get paper plates. My boys stockpiled the wood but if we are w/o power as long as we have been in the past, most likely we will eventually trek to my parents' house 20 miles away since they never lose power.

I delayed my normal weekly shopping due to the MLK holiday and didn't have a chance to get there until yesterday when everyone was just starting to give into the storm hysteria. Fortunately, I went to the store as soon as I dropped my kids at school, so the stores were rather empty and there was still plenty on the shelves. I heard today that the shelves were completely bare. I didn't go overboard but did my regular weekly shopping but planned meals that could be heated on our gas range if we lose power (making soup, chili, pumpkin bread, etc tomorrow). I also hit the library today to pick up a few books. Tonight I'm doing all my laundry in case we lose power (they say we could be out for many days if we lose it).

While the local forecasters are saying this could be a top 5 storm since keeping weather records, I'm not really doing anything much different than any other time we get storm predictions. We have an emergency kit with a hand crank weather radio, multiple battery and propane lanterns, batteries, etc. Just got word that school was canceled for tomorrow. Dd and dh are already talking about working on the puzzle they got for Christmas.

Most importantly, dh arrived home tonight from a business trip to Paris. He has been stranded countless times over the years due to weather issues while traveling so I'm glad that he had already planned to return tonight. I heard on the radio this evening that several airlines had already canceled all their Saturday flights.

Our main concern here in the Carolinas is freezing rain/ice. Duke Energy said to expect "widespread" power outages. School/work is canceled and DH does not need to go into work. We just hope the power stays on. I have a Subaru but it does not help much on ice.

Maire-Cate and Awm, We've had a transfer switch installed next to our electrical panel in the basement. The generator is located in the back of the house and the electrician installed a pipe with a cover next to it. We then ran wire along the ceiling with plugs at each end from the switch to the pipe. Now all we have to do is plug it in at both ends (one to the generator and one to the switch box), flip the switch and start the generator with the remote. It can run our well, all of our electric on the first floor and the heater. It's awesome, I love how simple it is and how there's no wires laying around to trip over. I would have loved to have one of those gas ran ones but they're so expensive we couldn't justify the cost. This was a good compromise.

Under the "you think your governor is overreacting" category........

The governor of Georgia declared a state of emergency in several counties yesterday because it might snow this weekend and that might cause problems.

Believe it or not, I kind of miss those winters, just not the driving! Crazy huh?

My governor isn't coming back to the state, he says he has it covered, while he tells people in Iowa and NH what a wonderful President he would make. This is the second time he has done this, the first time, he was in Orlando with his family, but had enough time to come back (or not leave). Nice.

I spent the day yesterday, in Harrisburg, with DD and her children so I sent DH to the grocery store. We didn't need much but I think I will have to venture out today because he didn't stop at the pet store as I asked him to. He got so many of the items wrong. I think I will buy a pork tenderloin to make so we will have leftovers.

I will fully charge all of my electronics and also charge my power station so I can recharge electronics from it. We have several generators so DH will get those set up and ready to roll.

My dogs absolutely hate to get their feet wet and the fact that is going to be a high wind situation makes it worse. Our lower level porch has a concrete floor so that may be their "port o potty in the storm".

DH is making a grocery store run this morning, mainly because he is out of the oatmeal he likes & didn't realize it until breakfast. So I put a few things on the list, mostly some ingredients for soup I want to make. Better him than me.

We're still forecast to get 1-3 inches in our area, starting later today. The kids are being let out of school early in some areas, most around noon. We'll see if they got it right.

looking forward to the snowstorm... not so much the high winds! hope we don't lose power, but happy we are not on a well, so we will have flushing toilets and running water as long as pipes don't freeze! at least it isn't forecast to be really cold!

debating whether i should run out to get another gallon of milk- we have a gallon and a 1/2... thinking i might make corn chowder, so maybe i should...

the dogs are going to love the snow- i am looking forward to watching them play!

I swear, you can never predict what those Y-chromosomes are going to do! LOL Oakley!

Just a few hours left before I have to stay indoors and hunker down, as the news stations are saying over and over and over. Up to 18 inches predicted for Philadelphia. I have enough food, books and projects to hunker down for a month. I did go out and buy a smartphone! I never had one and the last time we lost power I went nuts having no connection to the outside world but my landline and a transistor radio. I am now the proud owner of an iPhone 6. I can manage with the snow but I just hate when the power goes out. I may zip over to my mother's house and get some more firewood.

BTW,. How long does 1 GB of data last? Do I have to be stingy with it or can I still post here if not using wifi?

other things I do to prep got a power outage are get the laundry done and grind coffee beans. I bring out the French press for coffee. Glad I have a gas stove that I can light with a match.

Ga! We are supposed to get something, I hope not much and hope for snow not ice. My dad and my MIL live on their own, so I worry about them. My dad is prepared, I hope my MIL is. Hubby was stopping by there this morning. Hubby is an excellent shopper - which is good, because I hate it! Everything's charged here, we have a gas fireplace (will run fan won't if power is out) and a generator. Plenty of groceries, gas, etc. We have several battery operated lanterns and others used when we camp, so we are well covered in that area. I always have a battery operated one in the bedroom in case of power outage. Hmmm, I am craving something sweet, but have ingredients for brownies if the urge gets too great. LOL I feel worst for my pup, she hates the snow. We had a bit earlier in the week and as long as she can get to an area of pine-straw, she will go. I think hubby is going to rig up a covered area that we can uncover for her after the storm (if needed). Stay safe and warm everyone!

i think i will make a pot of coffee tonight so i have it to heat on our gas stove just in case... reheated coffee doesn't bother me! :)

Busy, GMTA! The day before we lost power after Christmas, I made a pot of coffee also. DH ended up making a couple of pots a day with one of those camp style percolators that hung over the FP.

Ded, if you lose power and you use your phone for large websites, it runs down the battery faster.

Google how to save batter life on iPhones. There will be a list of things you can do.

If you all do lose power, you can set your food outdoors. For some odd reason I can't explain, I made a 7 layer Mexican dip the day before knowing it would be good for several days. I kept it on the front porch and it was delish! We were able to have cereal for breakfast because the milk stayed cold.

We've had incredibly cold and cloudy weather this week so today I made Toll House cookies. :)

No snow here in Florida. Just some wind and rain along with low temps for a day or so. But Oakley, your post made me remember an incident when I lived quite remote in the far north. Our little mom and pop grocery store was over 50 miles one way so neighbors usually asked each other if they needed anything when they went to town. One day I asked neighbor to please pick up radishes for me. How many he asked? Just one will do I replied. A couple of hours later he brought me my one radish. Not one bunch - one little radish! We had a good laugh over that for days! Told him we drew straws for who gets to eat it.

It started here about 3 hours ago. Enough snow already that one of my neighbors has come through and plowed once and the roads are covered again. I saw on the new that b/c of the high winds blowing across the bay that we are also now in danger of flooding on top of the snow and wind.

I am just very glad the March for Life was not "snowed out". All those dear dear little ones need us to be their voice!!

Anyone hear from SueB? I would think she is in an area getting hit hard.

Luckily, we are getting more light snow and lots of sleet than freezing rain. Power has been on all day. Hope it continues.

It is snowing to beat the band here (never quite understood that expression). They have upped the totals to two feet because it started earlier than expected. Just found out tonight that my snow plow guy is no longer around. I may be stuck in here until it melts. Temps are supposed to be in the 40's next week, so it will be quite a slushy mushy mess. Winds should kick up tomorrow so my fingers are crossed for the power to remain.

Oakley, thanks for the tip about using the data. Guess I will just peek at FB and email.

Tina, Sue is in the Boston area on the edge of the storm. They're only expecting 3-6 inches.