Blackout 2008...

Who knew that Ike would hit the Ohio River Valley with such ferocity? Sunday we sat in the family room and watched the wind rip through our back yard. Although, it didn't seem particularly destructive (I have seen much worse in both Kansas and Nebraska), it wreaked an immense amount of havoc on the area. Reports indicate that wind gusts reached 85 miles per hour. Knocking down power lines, trees, and ripping sections of roofs off houses.

In some ways we were lucky, there was no damage to the house and we did not lose any enormous branches. Most of the clean up was fairly easy (of course I did very little, so it may have only seemed easy to me).

However, around 3:00 we lost power. This seemed to only be a slight inconvenience. I had chicken in the crock pot which was only half way done, sheets in the washing machine which were mid cycle and we had not run the dishwasher.

Oh well, I mean how long could the power possibly be out?!?

Apparently three days.

Again, we were pretty lucky. There are still 250,000 people in the Cincinnati area without power. They expect to have every customer up by tomorrow. That means there are a hundreds of thousands of people who have been without power for a week... a week!

As Jon and I listened to the radio and played Sudoku by flashlight Monday night, we listened to people call in and complain. Not about the lack of power, but about all the people without power who are complaining. These stoic callers were telling all the folks without power to "suck it up" and "get over it".

One of my favorite calls was from a man who remembered being in a hurricane as a child. He and his family spent the aftermath at his grandmothers who was able to cook on a wood stove in her kitchen. He remembered spending the days outside with his cousins riding bikes and playing. He made the suggestion that perhaps this power outage will get kids outside playing and perhaps cure the childhood obesity problem. What a fantastic idea... I know I plan to let my kids run around outside with tree branches hanging dangerously off the trees just waiting for a nice strong wind to knock it to the ground, oh and let's not forget the downed power lines.

Another call I really enjoyed was from a gentleman who was without power but didn't mind one bit. According to him it gave him more time to be with his five kids and he was thankful for this time. I remember thinking that it seemed sad that this man needed a power outage to spend time with his kids. Do we really need the remnants of a hurricane to force us to play a board game with our kids? Granted Jon and I did spend more time playing with the kids, but it never once made me think "finally, some time with the kids."

I was thankful when the power came back on Tuesday night. I was happy to get some groceries in my fridge and some normalcy back into my (and the kids) life.

However, I will forever remember Ike and all his glory.