Hurricane Katrina Update
Well, it would seem I’ve survived yet another hurricane. My family and I are all okay, but I have some good news and some bad news to report. I know most people prefer the bad news first, but I’m not most people…
Good News: The massive (~30ft) tree in my backyard did not fall on my house
Bad News: It fell on my three neighbors’ homes (yes, the tree was that big)
Good News: I got to spend a few magical evenings by candle light cuddled up with a good book
Bad News: I was without electricity for ~43 hours
Good News: My car was undamaged by the event
Bad News: Most of the roadways are blocked, thus making travel futile
Good News: There wasn’t too much damage control/client relations to deal with when I did get back online
Bad News: There always has to be one
Throughout the event, I also made some stunning observations.
- Yes, you can be addicted to the internet and withdrawal is a cruel mistress
- Cold showers are not as fun as they would lead you to believe on t.v.
- After about 24 hours with no electricity, you begin to dream you have electricity
- After about 36 hours of eating cold food out of a can and wondering when your next warm shower would be, you begin to feel like a hobo in your own home.
- After about 42 hours without electricity, your mind begins to wonder if electricity even existed in the first place or if it was all just an elaborate conspiracy
- After your electricity finally comes back on, you instinctively run out into the street asking all the other clueless looking people if their electricity came back on too as if it was the most magical event ever*
My helpful advice? Get. Camping. Equipment. You may not need the tent, unless you really want to make it an adventure, though.
FFAF seems to have been a smash while I was away – thank you Barbara, Tracy, Phill, Owen, Bonnie, and ProPAIN! for taking such good care of my blog while I was unavailable.
Now, I’m just going to get things back in order around here, clean up some debris, find out why I still don’t have satellite service, and then it will be business as usual.
* I didn’t actually run out into the street, but I watched a few of my neighbors do so – instead, I took the hottest shower I could stand and ordered Cheesy Bread.
August 29th, 2005 at 1:22 pm
Hey! It was my pleasure to keep your blog company whilst you were gone. (;
I’m glad to hear that you survived the Hurricane with just the electricity going out.
In Winter of ’94, my house was without power for 4 days. Yes. That long. And it was due to an ICE storm. ANd it wasn’t melting. So you can imagine what I was thinking about at night. XD
August 29th, 2005 at 5:55 pm
I said it once and I’ll say it again – 4 DAYS!!! O.M.G. – I think by day 3, I really would have gone primal (read: delusional), painted my face with leftover canned <food name> sauce and run around in the street naked praying to the lightening gods.
August 29th, 2005 at 5:58 pm
::bursts into giggles::
Yes, well. We were pretty much getting to that point. Making food was difficult. We were spoiled in that our previous house has a wood burning stove. We wanted warm food? Okay! Put it in a pot and put it on the top of the wood stove. YUM.
We had to hawk ourselves out to people we knew to get showers. It was so sad. XD
What was REALLY frustrating? The houses down the hill from us all had power. We thought about stalking them with really long extension cords. ::giggles::
August 29th, 2005 at 6:10 pm
Why didn’t you?!? I would’ve.
You know what is infinitely frustrating? My sister who lives not 5 minutes away from me telling me:
o_O – WTF?!?
(I know you’re wondering, how come I didn’t just travel to my sisters…believe me, I would have if I could have)
August 29th, 2005 at 6:11 pm
And I might add…only in FL could a scenerio like that actually happen – I swear it maps out the weather based on street names or something…
August 29th, 2005 at 6:22 pm
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh. That was kind of rude of your sister. Couldn’t she just bring that food to YOUR house where you had no POWER to make nice, hot food? Bad sister, bad! XD
As for the weather – I do wonder if it has a mind of its own and goes on specific sections on purpose.
August 29th, 2005 at 6:43 pm
I’m sure she would have if she could have…but that is the plight of FL and its fickle weather patterns
August 29th, 2005 at 10:19 pm
Glad to hear you’re doing well! Being w/out power is no fun…at all. During Ivan we were without power in Pensacola for over 3 weeks. I must say, it sucked
But we have great neighbors and we had a candlelight party every night. Although that helped to ease the insanity, we got a generator after that. The power was out today for a little over 8 hours but we had the AC running and the watched cable. I *heart* generators.
August 29th, 2005 at 10:43 pm
3 WEEKS – as in WEEKS?!? GAAAHHHH!!!111
Now I feel like a giant wuss for going nuts after a couple days…Teli is sooo going generator shopping – er, what kind did you get if you don’t mind me asking?
August 30th, 2005 at 1:36 am
“GAH” just about covers it! We got an Artic Cat 7500GD2E. ‘Twasn’t cheap but we figured we’d (sadly) make good use of it. And honestly, after three weeks of sweaty grossness, we didn’t mind.