Suviving the BIG One!

For days our weather forecasters had breathlessly reported the BIG upcoming storm.

"We have a BIG storm coming! You NEED to spend this weekend preparing for it. Clean up your yard. Make sure leaves won't clog storm drains. It's going to be BIG!"

We haven't had rain in a while so I was excited. YEAH! We have a BIG storm coming!

Monday evening I spoke to Ron and mentioned the BIG one coming. "They are talking about power outages. I really need to learn how to use the BBQ in case we don't have power." Ron reassured me it wasn't difficult.

Early Tuesday morning I could tell the BIG storm was coming. The wind was howling. The rain was falling. I felt warm and cozy in my little home.

I planned my day. Clean the house. Pay the bills. Watch the BYU devotional. Work on my Independent Study lesson. Teach a piano lesson. Run to the library and post office. Make a yummy dinner.

My plans soon changed. We lost our power at 8:15 am. Remember that time. It is important. 8:15 am. My hair was still damp.

I kept busy. I cleaned my house as well as I could in the dark. I paid the bills. I planned my weekly menus and wrote out my grocery list. The power was still out. I read my textbook. I did as much of the lesson as I could without the use of a computer. The power was still out.

I called the power company at 9:00. I called the power company at 11:00. I called the power company at noon. Still the power was out.

Library books were due. Emily and I manually opened the garage door. I bundled up against the torrential rain and gusty winds and BRAVED the elements by MYSELF! Emily refused to come with me because SHE TOO didn't have her hair done. I drove around fallen tree limbs, standing water, and other hazards. My hair looked pretty horrible so I dashed into the library, dropped off the due books, picked up the reserved book, and quickly left before I ran into anyone I knew.

My exciting moment at the library was witnessing the confrontation between two drivers. One driver had been rear-ended by another driver and the hitter would not give his ID to the hittee. (Is that even a word? Well, it is now!) I let the library security guy know that he was needed in the parking lot NOW! He was thrilled by my Good Samaritan interest.

It was now 2:30 pm. The power had been off since when? POP QUIZ everyone! That's right. 8:15 am. At 2:30 we still had NO POWER!

I canceled the piano lesson. The temperature inside our house was getting a little uncomfortable. Now what could I do? Stared outside the window. Check. Wandered around the house. Check. Foraged for non-perishable food to keep from opening the refrigerator. Check. Stared at a spider to see if it was dead. Check. Poke at the spider to see if it was REALLY dead. Check. Called the power company several more times. Check. Check. Check. Pulled out a library book to read. Check. Watched Comcast install a generator in our neighbors yard. Check. Now it was 2:45. Still no power.

I told Emily I had some OLD chocolate. She was interested. "How old?" Christmas stocking old. She whooped. She hollered. She pulled out Sequence. Whoever won the game got a piece of ancient chocolate. She won. She won again. We were bored with Sequence. It was now 3:30 pm. Still no power.

Emily said, "We need to play Life." I was not too thrilled. But, the electronic version isn't bad. In fact, I think Emily and I should play this game EVERY WEEK mainly so I can redeem myself. Yes, she beat me BAD! We played. We played some more. We played for nearly three hours. Still no power.

Ron finally came home! He brought dinner! He is my hero! I didn't have to forage for non-perishable food any longer. We ate. We talked. We cleaned up. It was time for Emily and Ron to attend their church meetings. Still no power!

I read by lantern light. I did a Sudoku puzzle by lantern light. I wandered the rapidly darkening house by lantern light. I called the power company again. Still no power.

Ron came home. Emily came home. Our good friends rescued our perishable food and stuck it in their extra refrigerator and freezer. It's finally time for bed. Still no power.

I woke up at 1:00 am. SOMETHING woke me up! My heart fluttered! Did we have power? I opened my eyes to a VERY dark house. No little green power light from the cordless phone. No flashing lights from the radio. Still no power.

Ron got up at 4:45 am to get ready for work. I groaned. Still no power. Were we doomed to go another full day without power? Half hour later the lights came on in all their glory! Twenty-one hours after the power went out the refrigerator was humming, the freezer was playing catch up, the lights were humming, the cordless phones were recharging. We rejoiced. We danced. We raced to the computer to check our e-mail.

And that is how we survived the BIG storm of 2009.