It's not that easy to do, even when the power problem has been conquered.

After sleeping in his own bed for the first time in days and fixing a hot breakfast Saturday, Stephen Frampton might have been tempted to kick back with a book and enjoy watching the snow outside his window in the Owen Park neighborhood.

Instead, he plugged in an electric chain saw -- useful once again -- and went to work in the front yard, clearing debris from last weekend's ice storm. As the lights came back on this weekend for Frampton and thousands of other Tulsans, life still wasn't quite getting back to normal.

"It will," Frampton said, sounding confident. But not yet. "If it snows more, this will be harder to do. I just want to get this done."

Priorities: As she dragged broken limbs out of her yard, Emily McDonald could look down the street and see porch lights burning at some of the homes near Rogers High School.

It shouldn't be long before she can check out of a hotel and back into her usual routine. And McDonald already has a list of priorities for what to do that first day with electricity.

"I'm going to clean my house. My dogs have been in there all week, and they are kind of devastating the house. I'm going to take a shower, blow dry my hair and do laundry."

Challenges: Utility workers from North Carolina were climbing a pole Saturday morning across the street from

He hasn't managed to get the home's own electric box re-attached.

"Tracking down an electrician is the biggest challenge now," Shoghi said. "It could be weeks before everybody is really back" to normal.

Shoghi himself never lost power at his home. But he has a lot of work to do for his renters.

"I'm getting my family out in force to clean up tomorrow," he said.

No matter how much work is done, he worries that Florence Park won't be the same.

"I wonder what our spring will look like," Shoghi said, gesturing toward the piles of limbs up and down the street. "All these beautiful old trees -- it's such a shame."

Hopeful: Down the street from Shoghi, David and Abby Pickard stood on their front porch to watch a small convoy of utility trucks work its way down Columbia Avenue.

At their feet, a brand-new chain saw was ready to come out of the box and a tangle of Christmas lights waited to be re-strung.

By Sunday morning, the Pickard house should look pretty much the way it did a week ago -- except for the mangled trees and the piles of limbs.

But the cleanup work could wait just a little longer. The Pickards, who have been camping out at the hospital where Abby works, had other priorities for the first hours back with power.

"Maybe sit down and have a good, hot meal at home for a change."

Skittish: Customers in line jumped at the sound of ice crashing inside the drink dispenser at Bill & Ruth's sandwich shop near 15th Street and Lewis Avenue.

"That sounded like the ice on my roof," one said.

The temperature hovered somewhere between 40 and 50 degrees inside the restaurant, where a portable generator provided enough power for the refrigerators and cash register, but not the heat.

"The important thing," said owner Sammy Saiymeh, "is that we're open."

Customers were streaming in for hot soup, baked potatoes and three-way chili. In fact, business has been even busier than normal since the generator arrived Friday morning. Before that, Saiymeh stayed busy ferrying his perishable meats, cheeses and milk between this restaurant and his other location, which still had power.

At his own house, the power came back Friday night -- in time, Saiymeh hopes, to save the tropical plants in his greenhouse.

"I think everything is coming back together," he said. "It won't be long now."

Nothing, however, can ever bring back the money he lost by being closed for four days.

"Well," Saiymeh shrugged, "what can you do?"

Ashley Parrish 581-8318
ashley.parrish@tulsaworld.com