Chasing the Wind

Image via Wikipedia We survived; we’re thankful. Not only that, we’re well, we have a nice cool front to bring the temperatures down, and it’s a full moon to illuminate our evenings. All these things we give praise and thanks to God.

Last Friday we tried several places to buy a propane refill tank to no avail. Everything was sold out; even finding a gas station that still had fule was difficult, but we found one still pumping. I made a last minute trip to Walgreens to buy a propane lighter, and then to Specs for some hurricane pinot noir, just in case. Then settled down to watch the news.

We watched until 12:30am and the power flickered off and on; at 1:30am we headed to bed. We lost power at 2:00am which woke us back up; electronic appliances beeped and complained they were without power, so I got up to shut them off.

Around 4:00am, the full force of Ike arrived, howling and shrieking outside. Thunder, lightning, wind, rain blowing sideways. I went back to sleep; because of a head cold, I took some Nyquil with the achy-stuffy-head-so-you-can-sleep-through-a-hurricane medicine.

Around 9:00am Saturday, without power, we took a walk in the light rain to survey the damage. Widespread flooding around our homes, and several large trees were down. We had abut 4 inches of water in the garage; it was expected and we had raised things up. Some trees had uprooted sidewalks; a chimney was damaged and fences were down. Some kind samaritan drove by in a pickup truck, fired up a chainsaw,and cut up the tree blocking our entrance, then drove off again.

Cell phone signal was sporadic; we sent text messages to relatives, and heard back from most of them. Cell phone service went out for good after that. And in the afternoon, we lost water pressure.

Sunday, the rain returned, and this time we had 6 inches of water in the garage. Any desire to find better accomodations had to be postponed, waiting for the water to drop.

Sunday afternoon, we drove to my mother’s, who had a large generator running. We were able to take a hot shower and feel civilized again and cook a hot meal. Monday morning a very nice cool front blew in, dropping the temperatures to a quite pleasant upper 70’s, and the full moon lights up the evening. We play cards and dice and read books during the day, and the in the evening play by candlelight. We have a laptop with enough juice to watch 1 movie.

At work, the building I work with is not yet in service, so I’m in a temporary training room where I can charge the laptop back up and finally see the devastation around me and realize how fortunate I am. I picked up some food to go from Olive Garden last night; some salad and pasta fagioli was tasty. They shut down early, though, because of the curfew still in effect.

Tonight, we can watch 1 more movie, the play games again by full moon and candlelight. We’ve visited more with our neighbors in the last 4 days than we have the last year. All blessings to be thankful for. The water pressure’s back, so we can take cold showers but more importantly we can flush the toilets. It’s sort of funny that everytime we walk into a closet we try to turn on the lights.

Finding gas for the cars is rare; most gas stations don’t have power, but we’re ok for another 4-5 days. Some restaurants are opening up; that’s easier than trying to wait in line at grocery stores that are out of everything except canned good. But power is being restored quickly around the city, so we have high hopes that they’ll get to us this week. Almost a shame, though, because the neighborly visits will end, the romantic card games by candlelight will be over. And I bet my electric bill this month will be low.

Thank you for the prayers; we are indeed thankful for them. Continue to pray for those that didn’t weather the storm nearly so well.