Steve's Ramblings

We spent Saturday and Sunday cleaning up the yard of tree debris and other trash; there was absolutely nothing else to do since the city was essentially shut down and we had no electricity. Approximately 95% of the nation's fourth largest city had no power. The weather was hot (90+ degrees) and humid...and, of course, there was no air conditioning. Radio reports had potential power outages lasting as long as six weeks.

We took walks through the neighborhood by day and played cards by kerosene lamp in the evenings. Waiting, hoping, waiting, hoping for the power to return. In the meantime, refrigerator/freezer contents were beginning to "lose their cool".

Monday morning a cool front came through and dropped the temperatures and the humidity to tolerable levels. We could open the windows and get some pleasant breezes through the house. However, still no electricity on Monday - the third day with no power. Fortunately, the water and natural gas in our area were uninterrupted...we could take showers and cook.

Tuesday was much the same as Monday...except about 9:30 in the evening, the electricity came back on. Oh, such joy...

Wednesday was spent beginning to restock the refrigerator/freezer since all of the food had to be thrown away because of the lack of cooling. Over half of the city is still without power. The grocery stores that have power do not have a lot of food. Gasoline stations that have power are beginning to run low of fuel and have long lines, reminiscent of the oil embargo in the 70s.

But, things are slowly returning to normal. It's been an exciting week.