powerless but fine

We survived Hurricane Irene! Our power lines, however, did not. We're still without power and it may not come back on for 2 more days. (I'm at Starbucks, in case you were wondering how I'm typing this.)

The biggest bummer about no power? I totally missed all The Weather Channel coverage of the hurricane.

It was a rather freaky storm. There are lots of trees down, including one on my neighbor's house (above), but everyone is ok. We slept in the living room which we decided was the 2nd Most Likely Not to Get Hit by a Tree. (The 1st Most Likely was also Most Likely to Flood. Fortunately that didn't happen either.)

I've learned a few things from this storm.

My living room floor is very hard.
Icy cold showers are not that fun.
Frozen fish sticks should be thrown out BEFORE a big storm.
Don't drink warmish milk.
Power outages and hurricanes can be added to the list of things that completely discombobulate a special needs child.

I haven't really minded being disconnected (other than the aforementioned icy showers and child who can't sleep). I could live without TV, lights, and maybe even the internet. (Because I just waded through 700 messages from my neighborhood listserve that consisted of: "My power just went out! Anyone else?" and "My power is back on! Yay!" (I kinda hate those people.)

I would miss you, village, but we could continue our love affair at a nearby Starbucks.

It took 2 days, but my kids finally stopped whining about the lack of power and started playing every game they could find or think of. (No more iCarly, thank you, Jesus!)

We go to bed by 9 because it's pitch dark and there's no complaining or delaying or wandering around for another glass of water. (Except Shout who can't sleep in the best conditions, but finally learned NOT to wander in the pitch dark when she fell down the steps. (She's fine. And sticking to her bed now.))

And today was the first day of school! Halle-freakin'-lujah. I had big plans to have a tailgate party in the parking lot after I dropped them off, but I couldn't buy any food ahead of time and getting ready this morning was even more of a challenge than usual due to a lack of unspoiled food.

I'm tailgating in my heart.

I've been going to the grocery store to shop for each meal, because even with a generator, our fridge has not been staying cold enough to keep the food fresh.

So you know what is AWESOME?

My grocery store is doing MAJOR remodeling.

So every time I go, things are in a different place.

Three times a day and each time, the cheese is moved. The milk. The produce.

FOR GOD'S SAKE PEOPLE.

But there's no tree on our roof, and for the last 2.5 hours, I have not had to get a drink or a snack or ANYTHING for ANYONE but myself.

I'm thankful.