Sunday, September 21, 2008

In The Dark

Actually, the sun is shining brightly today as it has for the past seven days. So it is very easy to see now, unlike the evenings when there is total darkness. We have been without electricity for SEVEN DAYS! I must make this brief, although I am dieing to go on and on about what has been happening here lately. We are sharing the use of a household generator with a neighbor, so we only get 4 hours of electric power per day. I send out my deepest apologizes to my fellow bloggers and e-mail pals who must think I have fallen from the face of the Earth. Also those who chat with me by phone...yes, our phone is electric too though we do have phone service through the regular line. As the phone sits in it's little charging holder it obviously gets no charge at all, therefore no phone at all. According to the little clock that sits idle on my kitchen stove, our electric went off at 1:10 pm on 13 September as the remnants of Hurricane Ike blew through Southwest Ohio, Indiana and parts of Northern Kentucky. 80 mile per hour winds for over 5 hours, but not a drop of rain. I have tons of photos to share of trees knocked down,various lawn furniture and barbecue grills strewn around yards and a collection of odd items we acquired via the wind from neighbors yards. Yes, it is rather annoying and inconvenient ( I am running desperately low on clean underwear!). Gas stations that did have electric ran out of gas as people lined up for hours. The situation was the same for bags of ice and drinking water. Luckily we have a propane water heater so showering and washing dishes is not an issue. For all of this upheaval I still feel blessed and think of those poor folks in Texas who got the full blast of the storm. Joe and I are safe, our animals are all fine and we get the use of this generator for a few hours a day. We finding great kindness from neighbors and friends who have suddenly spilled out into the streets to greet one another...sort of like a week long block party. We are invited to eat the contents of neighbors refrigerators ( and they likewise from ours) before things spoiled. We all sit and chat by the light of bonfires in the evenings as we burn the tree limbs that have fallen all over the place. We have our homes ( some, including ours, with a bit of damage here and there), our beloved pets and all of our stuff. We consider ourselves lucky. Sometimes it takes a little taste of what true sacrifice and suffering are to really appreciate what we have. We think about the people in Texas and pray for them.

7 comments:

  1. Hope you get your power back on soon. Take care {{hugs}}

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  2. Goodness Jenn, I had no idea. Hugs to you and all the people who are affected!

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  3. So sorry, had no idea at all that your absence on the blog had to due with this problem :-((

    Take care Jennifer, so good to hear that al of you are OK

    Love and hugs nicole

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  4. Glad to hear that you're okay. We went for 10 days without power when our girls were little as the result of an ice storm (middle of winter) and it was horrible. Ike did some damage here in New York, too, to varying degrees, but nothing like you've experienced. Sure hope your power comes back on real soon!

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  5. Wow! An ordeal for sure. It is so awful to be without electricity. Haven't had to endure that in a while. Knock on wood. My sincere thoughts and prayers with you in dealing with this.

    Nothing on the news about areas other than Texas mostly. Some info about rain others received, but nothing about people being out of electricity.

    Hope it comes on soon. Hang in there.

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  6. Hi! I saw you were from Ohio and had to stop over to check out your blog from Heidi's. We are the same age and I am originally from Ohio too. Immigrated to Holland many moons ago. :) Hope you get your power back very soon. It does give you time to reflect on things though doesn't it?

    Hugs ~
    Heidi

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  7. "I am running desperately low on clean underwear!"

    - Joe's probably happier without. :D

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