I lived through the outage without canned ham

By Lara Bricker
newsletter@seacoastonline.com
December 16, 2008 6:00 AM
Day four of no electricity and I have not yet resorted to eating a canned ham. I've eaten ravioli, soup, grilled sausages from my freezer cooked on a mini-barbecue grill, bad instant coffee and potato chips. But, no, I did not eat the canned ham.
Why the fixation with the canned ham? Well, there I was Friday morning inside Market Basket with a crowd of stunned people like myself who were completely unprepared for the storm. It was dark in the store, the dairy and meat coolers were blocked off, and people were running around like I envision we would if under a terrorist attack. I felt like I was a looter after a hurricane. And then I heard the voice over a makeshift loud speaker "we have canned hams, canned hams by the deli counter."
I was sure I could survive the storm by eating Chef Boyardee, soup and sandwiches. I told the deli guy I was taking a pass on the canned ham.
"Lady, by tomorrow you're going to be begging for the canned ham," he told me.
More like begging for real coffee.
I didn't think of myself as an addict before this storm, but I know now that I need those two cups first thing in the morning. Of course, I figured I would just drive off to Dunkin' Donuts in Stratham or Exeter and get a cup. I had no idea what awaited for me outside. My friend Jason called as I was about to drive out of my driveway.
Don't drive anywhere, he told me, there's trees falling all over the place, what are you crazy? It's worse than the ice storm of 1998, he said. Just then, some large branches came crashing down on my driveway. I was starting to realize just how bad it was.
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