almost traumatic

most already know that we survived hurricane ike this month. the hurricane itself was not bad. since this was the first of this kind of experience for either becky or myself, we really didn't know what to do. so, as most inexperienced people, we took the sum of our knowledge, and added it to the worst-case scenarios given by the liberal media, who strike fear into the hearts of all those who will listen, with every given chance. the night of ike, we camped out in the living room, an our couches. it wasn't bad, until the power went out about 1am. then it started to get stuffy. i went out to talk to one of our neighbors. as we were standing by our gates talking, we had a nice wind gust that blew open our 6'x6' solid wood gates, with ease. as they blew open, i had to hold on to the gate post for dear life, hoping i didn't get blown away; just knowing that the huge oak i was standing under was sure to come down on us.

when the winds got too scary, becky and i decided to move the family into a 'safe room'. this just happened to be the 4'x5' half bath in the laundry room. keep in mind, we already had no electricity....no a/c, no lights, no nothing. we shoved cameron inside the cabinets under the sink and counter, with his pillow, and a blanket for cushion. then we brought in the two dog beds, and put them on the floor. taylor, colton, and brianna got to share those. becky sat on the toilet, and i got the wonderfully too hard counter top, trying not to kick taylor in the head when my feet would slip off. we filled the sink with ice, so we could fan it, and try to cool the room. that was, until the condensation started soaking cameron. then he found a spot on the floor too.

we stayed that way for 4 hours, with the kids coloring and playing cards by flashlight, and becky and i listening to the news on a walkman i rigged up to an old car speaker. after that, becky and i switched places, and there we were for another 3 or 4 hours. that was traumatic. i am still surprised that the bathroom has managed to dry out from all the bear cave mouths of the kids, and the gallons that we sweat all over. i never imagined that leaving that room, to walk around an un-air-conditioned house would be so releiving. the rest of the house felt really cool....evn though it was 80+ degrees.

we decded that next time, we'll camp out in our bedroom, and have a window a/c unit. forget spending the night in a bathroom, especially with the kids getting bigger.

i must admit tht the 15 days post-huricane w/o power was not half as bad as that one night in the restroom. i spent a lot of time sleeping on the couches at night, because i could open all the donstairs windows, and prop open the living room door, and get a good breeze coming through. it almost felt normal.

but now we have power back, and life is slowly returning to normal. the county has yet to make any progress in picking up branches, tree trunks, and other debris in our neighborhood, so we have many piles on our block. 3 of which belong to us. i guess thats what we get for having one of the larger yards in the neighborhood. after we had cleaned the yard, and gott the piles together, and scooped everything possible into 50 gallon yard bags, we found out that the county won't take the bagged stuff, bcause they can't mulch the bags. thanks for letting us know before hand!

since i know the shopping centers around here have once- or semi-weekly dumpster service (and they can't fill their dumpsters when clsed for lack of power), i felt no guilt in making sure their expenses were not wasted. i took out all the back seats in the van and loaded it up 3 times with the bagged debris, and filled 2 dumpsters, and then some. westill have the piles, but at least all the black bags have disappeared!

all in all, no harm to the house, and except for some blisters on taylor's part (from raking the yard), no harm to the family.

see ya next time.