Stressing Out(age)

Photo by Rick on Flickr

So, in case you didn’t read this post, or this one, or this one, let me just recap and tell you that after Hurricane Ike wreaked havoc on Texas, he did something unprecedented for a Hurricane – he came up to the Midwest and gave Ohio the finger for having the audacity to think we didn’t need to worry about him. So, after a few hours of 45-70 MPH winds on Sunday September14th, many people in our state were left without power and with a lot more tree branches in their yard than on their trees.

By some miracle, we only lost power at my house for a few seconds. My brother and his family, who live about 5 blocks away from me, went TEN DAYS without power. TEN DAYS!! We live in the middle of a city, a pretty good-sized city. We don’t live in the boonies or have a power company with one worker. We live in a large city with it’s own power company, but the outage was so massive, that today, ELEVEN DAYS later, over 4,000 households are still without power. In 2008. And we didn’t even have a real hurricane.

Ridiculous.

But now I am getting ahead of myself. What I really want to tell you about happened this past Monday, eight days after The Big-Ass Windstorm of 2008. The kids and I were at my parents’ house in the afternoon and returned home about five o’clock. I had dinner in the crock pot, and we were having a really nice day.

Until I flipped the living room light switch and nothing happened. I flipped it again. Nothing. I flipped the switch in the dining room. Just an empty “click”.

“Oh crap.” I said quietly.

Then I FREAKED. I just about totally lost it. How could this be? Eight days when we have power and no one else does and NOW we don’t have any?? My fragile psyche couldn’t take it!

All our phones are electric, so I grabbed my cell phone and went on the back porch to call Bobby. The reason I went on the back porch? Because even though we live in the middle of a big city, our cell phones don’t work very well in the house. Don’t get me started. Thanks, AT&T! While I was out back, my neighbor walked into his driveway.

“What’s going on with the power?” I asked, trying to play it cool.

“A transformer blew down the road. I think we’re in for it now. I don’t think we’re going to have it back for quite a while.”

(My neighbor is a know-it-all and a Negative Nelly. This did not help my rising panic.)

I went back inside, where Sophie was pushing the power button on the TV over and over and OVER again and fussing at it. I am sure she would have been cussing at it if she could talk/knew any curse words. She then toddled angrily over to me and shoved the remote in my hand.

“Wasssh a shooow!” she demanded. (She can say that! Which is weird cause I rarely ever *ahem* let her watch tv.)

“We gotta get outta here!” I practically screamed.

“I don’t want the lights to be off!” Joshua wailed.

I called my parents and told them what was happening, and they invited us back over to their house. As quickly as I could I threw some PJs and diapers into my purse. I grabbed the kids’ movies and I took our dinner out of the crock pot (it was done thank goodness!) and put it in a Rubbermaid. I then proceeded in my panic to lose my cell phone and my keys. Joshua kept fussing about the lights and I barked at him to be QUIET while I got ready to go. I finally found everything and got the kids in the car.

I called Bobby again on the way to my folks house. “I’m not emotionally prepared for a power outage!” I half-sobbed. He wasn’t really as panicked as I was which irritated me. I mean, OBVIOUSLY we were now going to the bottom of the power-outage list and certainly our power was going to be out for at least eight days like everyone else’s! Even Negative Neighbor said so! Didn’t he understand? THIS WAS AN EMERGENCY!!!!!

We got to my parents’ and had dinner. After dinner my brother and I had a couple of phone conversations, trying to figure out what to do with all the food in my freezer, half of which was HIS – we’d been keeping it for days since they were still without power. Finally I got it worked out with my BFF that after Bobby got home, one of us would bring all the food to her house and put it in HER freezer.

I called Bobby again. He was working late which didn’t do much for my panic. I wished he was there with me so we could make a plan. We needed a PLAN! I got a little teary-eyed talking to him when I said, “We don’t even have anything we can eat for breakfast without electricity. One of us is going to have to go out and get some Pop Tarts or something.”

Yes, that’s right, I was crying over our lack of Pop Tarts.

I am not the most emotionally stable peach in the patch.

But anyhoo. After dinner, my mom and I took the kids outside to play. They were super-cute and had a lot of fun. But it was getting late, and Sophie was tired, so we wandered in the house about 7:15. My other brother, the one who doesn’t live a few blocks away, called to say that after eight days, they had JUST gotten power back. I was happy for them but miserable for myself.

“You know,” said my dad, “if you want to know if you have power back, just call your house and see if your machine picks up. If it does then you’re in business.”

I was sure it was hopeless, but I picked up my cell phone and pressed the speed-dial number for home. I listened to the rings – how many rings before our machine picks up? – I couldn’t remember. But then, the most beautiful computerized voice I’ve ever heard said, “Hello. We are unavailable to take your call…”

“It picked up!” I screamed joyfully.

My parents celebrated with me while I called my hubby, my brother, and my BFF and told them the emergency food-saving efforts for the night were canceled. We had ELECTRICITY!

I really couldn’t believe it. I was sooo suuure we were gonna be out for days like everyone else.

I got Sophie in her PJs and got all our stuff together so we could go home. As my dad walked us out to the car, he patted my shoulder. “Relaaaax, girl.” he said.

“Maybe in a few hours,” I said. (What I wanted to say was “Whatever, Dad, you know I’m JUST LIKE YOU.” [Like the old anti-drug commercial from the 80’s, “I learned it by watching you!])

Hopefully Dad, I will learn to chill out like you have by the time I get to be old like you are. 🙂

When we arrived home, the lights were on, Bobby was there, and everything was ALL GOOD. And, happily, I was finally able to calm down (after eating three XL Hershey bars and drinking six Mountain Dews).

Hmm. I MIGHT need to start drinking.