Outage

Well there are a few things that I am learning as I sit in the dark in the evenings here in Columbus, Ohio during the outage from hurricane Ike.

1. After not having tea for 3 days, it seems that I am officially addicted to caffeine as evidenced by the splitting headaches. I have pledged to curb this habit. It is hard mainly due to the fact that enjoying tea feels like a part of my heritage- being Irish and all. Nothing better than a good "cuppa" as my Aunt Bridie used to say.

2. It is good to think of the outage as an extended camping trip. Afterall, we have paid for such experiences. The difference is that I generally plan to the hilt for a camping trip- note to self- do a little more planning for such circumstances in the future.

3. When you don't have lights, place things in very predictable places things like phones, keys, matches etc.

4. Games are really fun. The kids pulled out a few this week and it was clear that they had a great time. Forcing the issue helped since computer games and tv often get first billing when lights are on. With this new found knowledge, I am planning on declaring game nights in the future (I actually know games are fun, I just needed to be reminded).

5. Dead limbs coming off trees is a good thing--especially if they don't hit houses or cars. Some of my neighbors were not as fortunate as I but all in all- everyone was safe and now has fire wood. I learned from a neighbor how to prune an apple tree in my back yard (yes I have apples!) and I plan to study up on this. Cleaning up clutter, or getting rid of dead fall is a good metaphor in many parts of my life.

We still don't have power and the electric company is saying it may not be turned on until Sunday at midnight (between Sunday and Monday). The main issue for us is figuring out what to eat. The grill and fresh foods have come in handy this week.

By the way, I went to our local Kroger's store and they were throwing away frozen foods by the shopping cart. It gave me a taste of what it must be like if we were in the eye of the storm so to speak. Can you imagine no food, water or other essentials? And, we think we have it bad as we ponder in the dark.

It has been interesting thinking about what it must have been like in the pioneer days. The biggest thing I have missed has been reading and blogging. I would have been bored out of my skull in the winter as it gets dark at 6:00, or maybe they found ways to amuse themselves otherwise.