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Archive for September, 2008

Hurricane Ike kicked our butts, in Louisville, Kentucky no less. The ornery old bastard swung up to our country after it finished with Texas and Louisiana. On Sunday we were suddenly hit with 80 MPH+ winds, and our huge maples and tulip poplars came tumbling down on the power lines. Don’t think I’m making any comparisons with Galveston because I’m not, but we were without power for six days. Over six thousand lines were broken. Sixty substations were knocked out. I have never been without electricity that long in my whole life. It was a revelation. I can’t imagine what the folks in south Texas and Louisiana are going through. If our misery was only a minute fraction of theirs, my prayers are with them tonight.

All the food in my freezer and fridge is thrown out now and rotting in the garbage can. The house is littered with flash lights, electric candles, camp lamps and batteries. I can change my clothes now without worrying about how I will wash them. The refrigerator will get a long overdue cleaning. I have developed a whole new appreciation for my 3G wireless broadband cell phone. I couldn’t surf the web, do e-mail or blog for almost a week. I learned again to shave with a razor and shaving cream. The air conditioner is running full blast and it sounds heavenly.

But, I’ll tell you what: this storm has opened my eyes. It puts a whole new spin on those interesting speculations that we do about survival and “WTSHTF” scenarios. I’ll be doing some more on this in the days to come. I spent a lot of time doing audio recordings, verbal journals of what was happening. I’ll post some of those as I’m able to process through them.

The folks across the alley still don’t have power. Their houses are dark. I know they are looking over the alley at us and hating us when they see our lights on.

Oh yeah, how do you get the power company to turn your power back on? Get really desperate, go to Home Depot and lay down $800 for a 5000 watt generator, and when you get home, your lights will be on.

Syd