After forty-nine straight hours without electricity, ours was restored around four o’clock this afternoon. When it came back on I was a little confused as to what to do . . . we were getting used to our new routine for doing things and it was kind of nice to visit, play and work together without the distraction of the television, computer and other various electronic gadgets. (It obviously hasn’t taken me long to jump back on the computer – this is one quick way to communicate our status to many.) Although the electrical outage was definitely an inconvenience, we were counting our blessings for the beautiful weather that came after the wind storm, the fact we had lots of dry and canned food, lots of little coolers, a gas grill and a gas water heater, and help from those with electricity (most of our deep freezer stuff was taken care of due to the help of a close friend, who in the middle of many friends without electricity never lost his, and my brother who just happened to be working in the Hilliard area was able to truck a few bags of food back to his house to store). We’re also thankful we didn’t get more damage than the tree at the end of our driveway falling onto our truck, which can be fixed and is just another minor inconvenience.
I should add that our neighbors and strangers rushed to help Adam and clear the debris. The driveway was cleared in about an hour. Adam's not sure who the strangers were. He said by the time he took the chainsaw from our neighbor and turned around, the strangers were gone -- an older lady and two younger women. We need to find them so we can thank them!
No way does the damage in central Ohio compare to devastation in Texas, but it was incredible to experience hurricane-like winds in an area far from any coast. I can also say this was minor to us when we compare it to the outage we experienced in Gallia County in the bitter month of February of 2003 – we were without electricity for THIRTEEN full days during an unbelievable ice storm.
And being responsible for a child or other people could definitely make things a little more challenging, but Vanessa was a trooper, so we wouldn’t know. As a testament to her adaptability, you’ll notice in the video that she loved playing in the dark. You’ll also notice in the picture below the video that Vanessa was thankful to finally play with her electric powered honey graham box shortly after the electricity was restored – she obviously didn’t miss a thing. :)
