Stormaggedon: Day 4

Wednesday 6AM:  As she heads off to work, I get last minute instructions on getting the boy to school.  All I want to do is lay there and sleep for another 30 more minutes but I know I'm just going to roll around.  Being in a strange bed always makes me sleep restless.  I know I have to get up probably in at most an hour and get dressed, get breakfast, and get him to school.  I offered to take him because based on my parents house location, it would be a waste of time and gas for her to backtrack.  Plus, she had to stop at the store on the way to work and pick up stuff for a baby shower.

Wednesday 6:50AM:  I roll out of bed, sleep already gone from my eyes.  I head to the bathroom to take care of all the particulars.  As I come out, I see he's already awake.  I tell him to get dressed so we can get things moving for the day.  He asks "Have you seen where my mom went?".  I tell him she went to work like she does every morning.  He says "Oh!  Yeah I knew that."  We continue to round up all our things and make the beds until we are ready to go.  We head upstairs to see what we can find by way of breakfast.  My fear is that the only cereals will be an assortment of fiber enriched twigs and berries type cereals that most kids would scoff at.  But to my surprise, I find Cinnamon Toast Crunch (or whatever the store brand is called).  Jackpot.  What kid doesn't like CT Crunch?

Wednesday 7:35:  We head out the door with bags in hand.  I load up the truck and make sure he is securely belted in.  I don't think he has ever been in my truck so I didn't want him to freak out being so high off the ground.  After climbing in he says, "You're truck is way bigger than my mom's car.  I like being this high."  Excellent.  We head to his school, wait in the parking lot for a few minutes for them to open the doors, and then he heads in.  Mission accomplished.  Now, do I dare check the house?

Wednesday 8:05:  I get to our street.  Trucks are gone.  Poles are up.  It's daylight so I can't really tell if anyone has lights on in their houses.  All I can really see is that there are two new streetlights past the house that weren't there before but neither are on.  I pull in front of the house into my customary parking space.  As I get out and open my passenger door to unload the bags, the neighbor pulls up and yells "Do we have power yet?"  I tell her that I didn't know yet.  The crews were out last night but we stayed somewhere else.  She says "You had a generator, didn't you?"  I tell her yes.  As she pulls away I hear her yell "We lost everything in our (g.d.) fridge".  Sorry to hear that.

I make my way up the stairs of the porch.  I open the screen door and immediately hear the cat meowing on the other side.  She doesn't enjoy being left alone overnight I don't think.  She is always extra friendly the next day.  I open the door, walk in, shutting the door behind me.  I turn to the right to hang up my keys.  I turn to the left and peer over at the TV.  While the screen is a reflective black, there's something at the bottom right that I have missed for a few days.  A little red light.  WE HAVE POWER!!

After 75,000 outages, almost 3 full days of waiting, a few sleepless nights, and worries over losing food and flooding basements, we can finally get back to normal.