Hurricane Irene - I Hate This Stuff

I hate this storm. I lived out in the mid-west for 20 years where the thunderstorms are BIG. The sky is big out there, and you can see so much when it comes to weather. The storms seem to have the opportunity to grow bigger than the Northeast, where I am now, but today is different. Hurricane Irene is coming. I spent the day the preparing my house like I was having guests for the weekend.

The electric company called my house. There was a recording. I don't usually listen to recordings, but this was different. The lady said that we were probably going to lose electricity and that it would take about a week for it come back on. I kind of knew this already, but suddenly it was official; I'm not liking this a bit. Our water comes from a well which has it's disadvantages. If there's no electricity, there's no water. No, I don't have a generator like the rest of the people I know. I can't tell you why other than my husband was pretty adamant when I asked him to get one a few years back. I didn't give it another thought. We probably could have bought two or three of them for the times that we lost electricity. I have a habit of running to a hotel when we lose power. I thought that would change his mind, but it didn't. So a hotel will have to suffice, not so bad.

This time is a little different though, the whole state may be out of power. I guess I'll have to rough it for about a week. I've been listening and reading on what to do if you lose power. First, you should have buckets of water so you can flush the toilet - that's done. I filled one of the tubs in the house, that should help.

I cooked some food for left overs hoping that if we did lose power we would have something to eat. I also went to the grocery store - big mistake - and got some snacking food. I did all my laundry too, I can't remember the last time all my laundry was done. I figured if we weren't going to have water, that meant no clean clothes, and I didn't want to start the week of no power with needing clothes on the first day.

After going through a lengthy check list of what I should have, I am finally rested and lying in bed, afraid. I hate this, I keep thinking a tree could fall on the house, or water will start coming in and we won't be able to control it. Did I say I hate this? I guess I'll just close my eyes and hope to get some sleep. Irene is supposed to be in full force by 8:00 am. I'm not feeling so lucky that I'll be able to watch it rip my yard apart.

I spent many times in a basement or two in the midwest waiting for a tornado to pass through the towns that I lived in. Now years later, I'm waiting for a hurricane to pass by. Twelve hours of hurricane winds are not something to look forward to. Then we'll wait another week if we lose power for our lives to be somewhat back to normal - that's if I still have a house when the storm is done.

Did I say I hate this? Good night, maybe I'll see you tomorrow, or next week when we have power back.