We came home Monday night (09/01) to a rough neighborhood, tree wise. Three of the 4 streets making up our block had trees down across them. The first real damage we saw was a big tree on the little Church of Christ building around the corner. There were trees and large limbs down all over, but none seemed to have damaged homes.
We'd left Greg's office to get our refrigerator on the generator. We have a gas stove, run the fridge on the generator, add a fan, lamp, TV, and DVD player - we'd be okay. Except Greg couldn't get the generator to start. And he tried until he was so angry he couldn't stop trying, IYKWIM. But he gave up and just went to sleep. Not such a happy birthday for him. Gregory asked to take some Melatonin early, so he was out fairly soon as well. I poured myself a glass of wine and sat on the porch with my flashlight and Pic mosquito repellant coil. I could see some light in the sky. It was still very cloudy, so any light would have reflected, but that light was coming from somewhere in our town.
I woke up Tuesday morning to the sound of the generator running. Greg had taken it apart and cleaned and reassembled it. So now we had cold food, and TV, our first distraction. No cable, so it was DVD fest. When we have bad storms go through, several radio stations across the state become one and broadcast aftermath information. Basically, people call with questions, they ask on-air, and they pass along information they receive. Things like "does anyone know of a Laundromat open in XYZ area?" or "Are they letting people into XYZ area yet?" "Where do we go for supplies?" Through the radio, we learned that Baton Rouge was in rough shape with over 90% out of power.
What sucks is that we also lose cell phone reception. I had forgotten that after Katrina we were very popular - we had a real old-fashioned attached-to-the-wall fully corded landline phone. Thankfully I'd given that number to Stephanie, and when I stopped answering her text messages Monday evening, she called. She sounded exactly as I imagined she would, and it was though we spoke everyday.
It rained (but not stormed) for most of Tuesday and Wednesday, and that thankfully kept things relatively cool. We were comfortable sleeping with just a fan, and even reached for the cover a time or two. I think by Thursday we'd heard that our area was expected to be back on by Tuesday (09/09). Not great news, but better than not knowing at all. Having a day to look to really helped Gregory. He was so patient and so helpful through it all. Oh, he had moments of "I miss the computer", "I miss cable", but we all had those.
Wednesday morning, our big, loveable cat Andy went out with the others in the morning. He didn't go out much, and he usually stayed on the porch and came back in within an hour or so. But we haven't seen him since. I searched for him all day Thursday, looking through piles if debris and in ditch culverts. I dreamed I found him wet and battered in a debris pile. I finally told Gregory Saturday or Sunday. I was hoping I wouldn't have to tell him. But I knew he both could and would want to pray about it, so I did. I just said I hadn't seen him since Wednesday. Gregory had a dream about finding him too, similar to mine. We searched the neighborhood again, but no luck.
I think Thursday cell reception got a bit better, and we were able to send texts sometimes. I had my friend Brandie and her kids (Baby Alena was just 3 weeks old) on my mind and heart. I knew they had no power AND no generator. And the way her apartment is built, there's no getting a breeze in that place even with every window open. She had sent me a text message on Tuesday morning that I got Thursday evening. It said she was out of formula and need a ride to auto zone, her van wouldn't start. I had no car to get to her during daylight. Greg was back at work as well, and didn't want to leave the generator unattended. They were getting stolen. And by the time he got home from work, it was curfew (6am - 6pm). I couldn't get to her (about 8 miles away) and I couldn't get her to any open stores. But when I finally did get in touch with her, she let me know that people had been stopping by to check on them and she'd go sit in their cars with the baby & the A/C for a while. She'd been able to get to the store. I had prayed for others to help her, and they did. Yea! Then she called me Friday night and said, "Listen to this..." and I hear the Hannah Montana theme song. They had power! I was so happy for her.
So Saturday I took a big batch of laundry to her house and Gregory got to play video games with her boys. We spent the day with electricity. Then we went back home to a dark neighborhood to fix dinner by lamplight... By then, it was getting hot. Really hot! And humid! I'd finish cooking with sweat dripping off me and go straight to a cold shower. We did a lot of showering!
By Sunday people were asking if we'd seen Ike. We'd heard about him via radio, but still had no cable, so no "seeing" the storm. And we weren't ready to think about that yet anyway. LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU...
Staple groceries became very had to find. We had a freezer full of meat, so I could cook, but that made the house so friggin' HOT! I hadn't gotten any sandwich meat pre-storm because we wouldn't need it. Boy did I regret that decision! Stores that were open had big signs out front of what they didn't have - most included milk, bread, and meat. That gradually got better and by Monday night, we were eating sandwiches. :)
Monday afternoon, one of Greg's friends from work brought us his generator, 3 times the wattage of ours (it's the size we need - we got gouged for ours after Katrina, and it's really too small for more than a couple of days use) so we now had an A/C unit running (glad we still have window units!) and washer/dryer hooked up. And Gregory could hook up his PS2. Video games at last! I believe it was Monday that the cable came back up as well.
Tuesday came and went. No one in our immediate neighborhood had power. The main drag and the stores on it were up, but not home. The power company outage reporting number was still a recording promising no time frame. Late Wednesday evening (after dark) someone knocked on our door. It was our neighbor Mike from across the street. Seems that his neighbors to the left and to the right had power, be he didn't. We didn't either. There are 6 houses on our street, 3 had power, and 3 did not. Thursday afternoon we saw work trucks. COOOOOOOL! Closest we've been to power in 11 days. But our next door neighbor (a renter) still had a big limb on his house that was pulling the lines down. The power company had repeatedly told people they were not going to cut limbs on private property. The homeowner was responsible "for making sure you are ready to receive power." Well, with that limb there, he was not ready to receive power, which seemed to be why WE (& Mike) still didn't have power. Mike and I joked that we'd tell the guys to cut the neighbor off at the street and hook us up! The owner of the house was leaving the limb there because people were telling him the elec. co. would take care of it since it was on the line, but that was not so. So the power guys talked with the guy living next door and he went off and came back with a ladder and a reciprocating saw. He got on the ladder and cut back the pieces hanging and got it close to the line. Then the power co. guy got on the ladder with his chainsaw and trimmed back just 8 or so inches of the limb that was on the power line, leaving the rest on the roof. There were 3 trucks parked out front, and several hard-hatted guys walking the street. I was sitting at my desk where I can watch without being seen
I had promised Gregory he could use the computer first. I wasn't ready to face the email or answer the well-meant questions yet. It took a few days for me to get back into it. And besides, everyone was talking about Ike, and my groups include people in Texas who were going to get what we'd just gotten.
That is if we didn't get it - for quite a while, it was iffy. That sucked. It gave me that feeling of having an egg beater put to my brain. Who's ready to go through that again so soon? At least we had a month between Katrina and Rita. We got more rain, a few more broken limbs fell from the trees, and we lost power again for a few hours, but we were otherwise unaffected. But many people near us in lower lying places got flooding from Ike that came right on the heels of Gustav. There was no time for the water to go down.
Unaffected. That word is so dismissive. We didn't get the brunt of the storm. But how could we not be affected? Shell-shocked and barely back in the light, here we go again, maybe. Maybe not, but be ready! So back we all go to the insane stores that aren't restocked yet, and are only open ‘til 6 PM. We were affected. Trust me.
By the Saturday following the storm, Greg had done enough roof repairing and tree cutting and debris hauling to really hurt his already bad back. He went to the doctor Monday and Wednesday for it. They give him pain pills and muscle relaxers. He gets no real relief from either. He's only not in pain if he's lying flat on his back. He's a believer of chiropractic care, but he's not found one who can really get the deep low back area which is the worst of his pains, so he's somewhat given up on that approach. He said the word "surgery" a while back, so I know it's getting worse. It's taking longer and longer for him to heal when he gets hurt. He is still in a lot of pain today and still using a back brace. But still he gets up, after not really sleeping, and goes off to work leaving me and the boy to sleep. I let him know how thankful we are for that sacrifice, but probably not enough. I remember when I was the one working full time and he was a student with later classes. I resented the hell out of having to get up and go to a miserable job while he lay sleeping.
So that's how we get to today. It's a nice one, only 70 degrees out, no tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic, gorgeous blue sky. I look out my window and see squirrels chasing each other around my live oak tree, and 4 or 5 black birds coming and going at the birdbath.
Today I am thankful for
***My incredible husband
***My electricity, which allows me to connect with you
***My beautiful still-sleeping son
***The incredible view of nature outside my window
***And most importantly, for my God who met each of our needs through all of our turmoil, kept us calm, and is returning us to *normality*.
We've changed, I've changed. You can't go through something like that and not be. I'm not trying to make it more than it was, we were always safe and were really only inconvenienced. But we have new memories and experiences, and that has made us just a little different.
This house is about half a mile from us...
