Still Here After Windstorm '08

My last post was on Saturday, September 13. Little did I know it would be five days until I could update my blog again.

Sunday was a beautiful day. The temperature was around the mid-70's and there was a nice breeze in the air. My husband and I discussed riding our bikes but we both noticed the breeze was starting to turn into a strong wind and decided to forego the ride. We spent the afternoon relaxing and I thought I'd make dinner a little earlier than usual, which turned out to be a good choice.

Just as we finished dinner, around 5:20 PM, our power went out. We had seen our lights flicker a little and started to hear an increase in the wind. After our power went out, we started to hunt for the candles and the flashlight.

My husband and I spent the rest of the night looking out the window and talking to a few family and friends about what was happening. One tree in our yard split at a branch that looked to be around 10 inches in diameter. Only later did we discover that we were experiencing the winds of a Level One hurricane. Ike certainly didn't slow down before blustering through Ohio!

We were blessed. Our power was only out for 24 hours. As I type this, many Ohioans are still without power and some won't have their power restored until the weekend or even Monday. Although our damage is nowhere near the destruction that Galveston and Houston experienced, it still brought its fair share to our area. One woman called a radio station to say her power had been restored after days without it - only to have the tree that had fallen on the line burn to a crisp after the power came back on, which promptly destroyed the power line, leaving the area once again without power. Talk about bad luck!

Although our power was restored after 24 hours, our Internet connection was not. Our service provider had to wait until power was restored to the hubs and evidently, our hub was still without juice. After four days, we just got our connection back today around 3:00 PM.

So I'll be catching up with emails and such. It's strange to be without the Internet when you're used to having it available 24/7. Yesterday, I almost went into a Panera's to see if I could hop online but then thought better of it. The place was packed because so many people were without their Internet. I decided I'd tough it out and get reacquainted with my new home which still could use some organizing.

But still, I have to admit I am very glad I'm online. It can be pretty frustrating when you have a thought, think "I've gotta blog about this!" - and then realize you can't!