Post Hurricane Post

I shouldn't really call it a hurricane.  By the time Hurricane Irene made it up to my neck of the woods she had been downgraded to a tropical storm.  But she sure packed a punch.  We heeded all the warnings, stocked up on batteries, collected jugs of clean water, gathered our candles, and stayed inside.  We saw trees really whipping around, and we lost a few trees on our property and saw quite a few down around the neighborhood as well.  

The storm itself did not cause a lot of structural damage in our area, nor much flooding (I believe western CT got most of the flooding) but eastern CT lost a lot of trees, and a lot of those trees fell on utility lines, so we lost power and phone service.  We were prepared, and it wasn't so bad the first day, or 2, or 3... but boy, by day 4, and 5, and 6(!!!) we were really tired of it all and nerves were fraying.  We were very lucky that we did not sustain any damage to the house and we were all safe, and when we needed it, we had friends with power, internet, and SHOWERS who offered us their facilities.  I was even able to take the food from my large freezer in the basement to 2 different friends' houses in order to keep it all frozen.  So we didn't really lose much. This video is the view of the back yard during the storm; that oak tree that's thrashing around is huge!

I boiled water every morning outside on the gas grill for coffee and tea.  I bought bags of ice to keep in the refrigerator and everything stayed cold enough.  We made bacon and eggs on the grill, heated up leftovers, and cooked a couple of frozen pizzas (with only minor charring and small flames in one corner).  I did get tired and take the kids out to lunch one day for fresh hot food (and coffee for me), and another night we got greasy takeout Chinese food and ate it by candlelight on the porch.

Takeout by candlelight

I was taking advantage of my outdoor clothes dryer as well.  While I wasn't actually washing clothes, I used a lot of rags and towels to soak up the mess and the melting ice from the freezer and the fridge, and I needed to dry them out so they didn't grow mildew.

What really kept us sane was the ability to get out every couple days to descend upon another kind friend who had offered her house for showers, charging of electrical devices, and an internet connection.  We also used the public library, which became quite the community center where half the town came to charge electronics and check email using the library's wifi.

One afternoon the girls and I decided we needed pedicures.  So while the natural light was still good we pulled out all the nail polish we had and pampered our toes.

girls painting each other's toenails

pretty pedicures

By day 6 I needed to think about something besides the storm aftermath and how to feed 3 hungry teenagers without electricity.  I decided the answer to that was a new knitting project!  I has told Aya that I would like to knit a hat for her for the winter.  So I pulled out my knitting patterns and asked her to look through them and tell me what appealed to her.  Then we went to a friend's house for showers and I got on knitty and searched through all their hats.  She picked out an interesting pattern called Bloody Stupid Johnson, http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/PATTbsjohnson.html, and I wrote down the yarn requirements, and after we had all showered, the girls and I took a trip to the yarn shop and looked for yarn.  While I was at it, I asked Jessica if she needed a new winter hat, and ended up buying yarn for 2 hat projects.

Yarn and gauge swatch for Aya's hat

Yarn for Jessica's hat

There is nothing like new yarn to brighten up the day.  I didn't really need to start 2 new projects, but I'm going to really enjoy them!

This morning at around 1:30 am the power finally came back on.  For once I didn't mind being woken up in the middle of the night by the hall light!  We are appreciating every little thing that we were missing without power, phone or internet, at least for a short time, and I am doing lots of catch-up laundry.  Kids will start school this Tuesday, a week later than scheduled, and hopefully we will all fall into a normal routine without any major storms to add excitement to our lives.

Shelley in CT