Sunday, Sept 14th, 2008

This past Sunday, started out like every other Sunday. I talked on the phone with my son for awhile, then went to take care of some things for my mother. While we were at her house her electric went off. This was about 1PM, it wasn't too long after that we decided to head for home which is about 15 miles away. As we walked out the door, there were dark clouds swirling around the sky and it was quite breezy. We hadn't gone two miles when all of a sudden it felt like the car had been pushed backwards about 10 feet and branches and other debris started sailing past the car. Ike had made his presence known!
I was so smug about the fact that I didn't live on the TX Gulf Coast anymore and here I am going through the remnants of a monster storm that was able to reek havoc as far as the Midwest! We had decided to take the back roads to get home instead of the expressway. BIG MISTAKE! We had to literally drive through and around tunnels of trees! Phil laughed when I asked if there was a treeless way home. He did manage to find a road with a little less trees about two miles from the house. When we arrived back at the house it didn't take too long to realize we didn't have any power, which meant we also didn't have any running water. Since we live out in the country we depend on a well and a pump. Fortunately, we had bottles of water that we keep on hand for just such situations. Well, anyway, we went the rest of the evening with no power. I had my cell phone which I laughingly had to take to the car to charge, cause I only had one bar of power on it and it was our only means of communication. So, while charging the phone in the dark in my little blue Nissan on Sunday evening, I listened to the radio and was shocked to learn that it could be days if not over a week before power would be restored. Our utility company alone had over 225 thousand customers without power. Kinda made me feel small in the whole scheme of things. We went to bed early that evening thinking that surely we would be back in business by Monday. Boy, were we wrong!
We got up at our usual time on Monday morning thanks to the alarm on my cell phone and of course, Dusty, who was letting us know it was time for breakfast. That boy is always hungry! We ate a breakfast bar and sat and cuddled the puppies for an hour, then my cell phone rang. I was told that Phil and I didn't need to report for work. The plant and front offices were closed due to no power. I smiled and was thankful we had another day off making for a three day weekend! At daybreak, we assessed the damage around us. We didn't even lose a shingle (thankfully, it a brand new roof)! Our neighbors lost trees but fortunately, no homes were damaged there was just a lot of debris to pick up. So, Phil started on that and I started to check and see how much food needed to be taken out of the freezer. We lost about $800 worth of groceries, which I don't think is at all bad, considering. I grilled fish and frozen french fries for lunch, along with a salad from the garden (what was left of it). I cleaned out my office of things I want to get rid of by either donating or selling. All in all it was a very productive day. We again, went to bed around 8:30 because it was dark and still no power. I had a book that I was reading by itty-bitty book lite and finally had dozed off around 9:45. At 9:58 I heard a click and thought we must have a mouse then all of a sudden the air conditioner started running! WE HAD POWER! I was so excited about having electricity again it took me hours to go back to sleep.
Many of my co-workers are still withouth power (Wednesday). I do know for certain, I will not go through this again, as soon as we can find one, there will be a generator living at our house just waiting for lights out again! I at least want running WATER!
I am thankful, we lost nothing but a little food and power was restored for us. It was just a minor inconvenience. I just feel so sorry for the loss of life and homes along the gulf region. My heart goes out to those people.