Returning to Maine: The way life should be?

This was not an original topic, but for those of you who pine for the Pine Tree State, it isn't like the tourists see it in summer.
We left a balmy, sunny Miami on Sunday morning headed back to Maine. Landing in Charlotte, NC, the temperature had dropped to 45 degrees, but it was sunny and pleasant, a day we would welcome here. Back in New England it was quite another story. Boston was foggy and raw with a light rain. We boarded a bus north to Portland, and the further we went, the heavier the rain, the deeper the snow by the roads and the drearier the landscape. In Portland, we retrieved the car to complete the 30 mile drive to Harpswell, in what was now heavy rain, with the drops beginning to splat on the window. It was snowing and dark by the time we reached our driveway, covered with the ice of a storm that had occurred while we were gone.
"So welcome back to Maine," I thought. Tomorrow I will strap the snow blower to my loins and blow a great white stream of snow across the yard. But waking up in the middle of the night, I realized I had neglected to think of another wonderful aspect of life in Maine: the power had gone out. That means, no lights, no furnace, and in the case of rural areas, no water.
But we plan for such things, they are frustratingly frequent. Monday was occupied with clearing away cement heavy snow, and standing by the wood stove to melt enough snow so that we could flush the toilets. The yellow snow by the garage could be blamed on the dog..... if I had one.
Day two found me up at 6 cranking up my third world wind-up radio to listen to the sound track of a local TV station, and the first words to come out of it, so help me God, was the punch-line of a Central Maine Power commercial, "Flip a switch and we're there." The irony was grotesque.
But the day was occupied with my job. CMP (Cut My Power, to most of us) had restored power to the main road, so the office of the Harpswell Anchor Newspaper, had lights and running water. After restoring the main line so the kids could return to school the line crews disappeared, leaving most of us still in the dark.
The nice thing about having parents in assisted living is that those places have huge generators, so off we went to spend the evening with them, to use their shower.
Day three, today, my wife got up for work, left unkempt. She could be mistaken for a hospital patient, not the nursing instructor she is. I get up feeling like I used to after a fraternity party. Why one can't sleep when the power is off,and why brushing your teeth out of a glass instead of a tap leaves them feeling like they're wearing sweaters, I don't know.
At 1:30 I call home. The answering machine picks up... the power is back on. I race home bring in all the food where it has been freezing on the porch and put it back in the fridge. Flush all toilets, run all faucets to see if the pipes have frozen. So far, so good, but there's another storm on the horizon for Sunday.
So it is with life in Maine, the way life should be.