I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

I'm back. :) Ike came and went 2 weeks ago today. We are fine, the house is fine, we didn't lose any trees--only some big limbs and the bird feeder. The power came back on last night about 6 pm. That's the focus of this blog. Living without power is nothing. Easy. So, why was I crying when I pulled into the parking lot of the laundromat and couldn't find a parking place? Why did I cry again when friends took my laundry for me? We were prepared. Always have been. We have a grill outside, a Coleman stove, lots of propane, flashlights, batteries, a galvanized steel tub for open fires outside, a turkey fryer that runs off of propane, water. We have clean water! The water wasn't interrupted at all but we were under boiling advisement for about 3 days while it was checked. We also have 4 55-gallon barrels of water in the garage and we had 7 cases of bottled water. Also, all of our cars tanks were full and we didn't have a generator that we needed to buy gas for. We have food storage! I've been working on our 3-month supply of easy to cook food, mostly canned. We really were prepared. The only line we ever had to stand in was for ice. After a couple of days we couldn't keep our fridge cold enough any longer and had to throw out a lot of food and transfer the rest to coolers. Every day we went in search of ice. 5 bags a day. Our new HEB was open soon after the storm and usually got 2 trucks of ice in a day. The arrival times varied so sometimes we had to wait on the shipment before we could buy our treasured 5 bags. We kept 3 coolers cold and put the rest in the outside freezer. After about a week, the freezer was ready for a clean out. Everything was thawed and after eating a lot out of it, we couldn't buy enough ice every day to keep it full. So, one cooler went to the freezer items and the freezer was cleaned out. We gave one turkey away and fried the other. We had to throw out a roast, some chicken, a couple pounds of hamburger, some ribs, and stewmeat. The day before the storm, I cooked about 5 lbs. of chicken and shredded it and stuck it in the freezer so we could easily add it to meals to eat after the storm. We had plenty of bread in the freezer, which was a blessing, because the stores could not keep bread stocked. The area is mostly back to normal now. We were the last block in our neighborhood to get power. The kids went back to school on Wednesday, I went back to work last Monday. Chris went back to work the Monday before. Life is getting back to where it was before but my emotions are not where they were before. After living on the edge of civilization for 2 weeks with only a newspaper and radio for news (the radio got old really fast--too much negativity), I feel like life will never exactly be the same again. On Wednesday morning before school started, the elementary school had a prayer for the families in the neighborhood and for the kids starting back to school. We all met at the flag pole and participated in a non-denominational prayer. Tears came to my eyes as I stood with my friends and neighbors and prayed with them. Only in Houston does the PTO think of praying with its students and actually does it. And no one will be suing. During the first week after the storm, we had the kind of experience that has made lasting positive memories. The weather turned cool (very rare for this time of year here) and people went outside. Neighbors helped each other clean up yards, cut up trees, rake and bag debris. And then after dinner the kids played. Freeze tag, toilet tag, flashlight tag, missionary tag, and lots of games and running. One night Chris and I sat on the porch and watched 16 kids in our yard and spilling out into the other yards, playing some kind of tag. We enjoyed watching their antics and strategies. We're surprised no one ran into any of the trees because it gets dark without any street lights or lights of any kind. We roasted marshmallows together and made banana boats and s'mores. After the cleanup in the neighborhood was under control, the kids would head down to the elementary school every day to play kickball, touch football, and swing. It was an amazing week of good old-fashioned play. As more people around us got their power back on (some as soon as the day after the storm), we had so many friends reach out to us and others who did not have power. We were offered help with laundry, dinner, and a place to cool off when the cool weather left us. These friends will always, always be dear to my heart. It really wasn't catastrophic to not have power for 2 weeks. We had all that we needed, thanks to our friends. Pictures coming soon--Chris has the camera down in Galveston today where he's helping clean up. Mormon Helping Hands sure stays busy around here. (I'm going to go vacuum now.)