DADE CITY - The sun was setting Wednesday outside Patty Ruger's plate glass windows, overlooking Lake Pasadena, swollen with the weekend's rain.
Soon, it would be dark. Inside and out.
Ruger and her cousin, Sonny Dixon, like many in Pasco County, have been without power since Frances started rolling through Saturday. There are no guarantees when they'll get lights and hot water and air conditioning back.
"You try to get used to the heat and humidity, but you don't really," said Dixon, 79.
It's hard to sleep at night. Reading by candlelight and lamps is tough. Cooking is done on a camp stove.
"We're cooking everything in the freezer as we go so we won't have to throw it away," said Ruger, also 79. "For breakfast it was chicken and peas. For lunch, salmon corn and peppers - because that's what we had."
Tampa Electric Co. spokesman Ross Bannister said by late Wednesday afternoon, only about 3,000 Pasco County TECO customers were without power. But getting to everyone takes time.
At first, he said, a crew could work six hours on a major line, and when it was fixed, thousands would get power restored. As those big lines were repaired, a crew would work six hours on a medium line, and hundreds would be back. Now, crews are down to small lines that serve small neighborhoods.
"It's diminishing returns," he said. "It's the same work, takes the same time, but it's less and less people."
Eventually, it will come down to individual homes.
Ruger and Dixon share a house at the end of a narrow road. They can hear a generator down the street, and they can see lights shining in neighborhoods not too far away.
Life without power is reminiscent of a time long ago, Dixon said.
He remembers growing up in southern Maine, before electricity.
"This reminds you a little of what it was like before all this stuff," Dixon said. "We made do."
Still, having a camp stove to heat some water for a shave was nice, he agreed.
Ruger, whose last experience with a hurricane was as a child in Fort Lauderdale when the 1935 hurricane swept through, is less nostalgic for the old days. Life without power is a drag. When night falls, there's nothing to do but listen to a small radio, amplified through a makeshift speaker Dixon rigged.
"I miss listening to David Letterman. That's how I go to sleep," Ruger said. "At 9 o'clock, you might want to go to bed, but you're not tired and it's too damn dark to read."
POWER LINES
Life without electricity brings new challenges. Pumps for well water won't work; refrigerators don't refrigerate; air conditioning is a memory (and, no, you can't just turn on a fan instead).
On its Internet site, the American Red Cross offers these tips:
For the first two days after a power outage, start by eating the food from the refrigerator. Food from the freezer will last longer and can be eaten last.
If the power is out for two days or longer, it is likely that food in the refrigerator has spoiled. Discard all food from the refrigerator. Food in the freezer that still has ice on it may be all right, but if it has thawed or reached a temperature above 40 degrees, it should also be discarded.
Drink plenty of water throughout the storm - about eight glasses per day.
Avoid alcohol - it can dehydrate and make a person more thirsty.
Drink bottled water until you know that the water supplies are safe. If you run out, drink water from melted ice or even from the water heater once it has cooled.
