(or: What it is like to camp inside my house)I hope all out there are safe and well. We have gotten by well, weathering the actual storm in the home of our fabulous Austin hosts Everybody Loves Jill and Dylan. Dylan can air guitar every song on the Tom Petty live concert DVD and is the coolest 4 year old you will ever meet.
We returned about 4 p.m. Sunday. Our fence was down, but not out, and a tree dented our a/c, but we are optimistic that that is cosmetic to the caging and it will still work once power flops on. Our neighborhood (Mangum Manor - near oak Forest) had trees down but it looked like we were fortunate as a whole and I did not see any through houses. Most of our neighbors had cleaned their yards already (show-offs) so we went from "those tacky people who never mow their lawn" to "those slacker people who still have not cleaned up their lawn." Hank Hill my husband is not. However, when we rolled up with a cooler of beer iced down by magical good karma Austin ice, all was forgiven.
We have no electricity yet, but being blessed with a husband in the construction field with an awesome company (Hurray Native services!) we were commissioned to pick up generators before we left Austin, and given one so he could work at home. So until it gets hot we are really not suffering at all. Last night we even actually turned the TV away from the news and watched Family Guy for a while (seen it *sigh* my suffering never ends.) After bagging leaves most of the day Monday (myself - Skittles went off to work), I actually sat on the back porch and did my toe nails (the need was dire) and only drank half a bottle of wine before I was too tired to hold my head up. Raking and bagging leaves kinds stinks. I am saving the back yard for Skittles.
Her are the things I have learned so far:
- You can run a hairdryer off a generator
- Emergency ice can be used to keep beer cold
- When a hurricane is rolling in, leave it to my brother to text me from the roof of his downtown apartments parking garage that he can throw a Dixie cup 200 yards
- Reading is Fun, God bless my itty bitty book light
- If your refrigerator is out, so is Kroger's. Here is to being vegetarian in September.
- I will always have a gas heater and stove!
- I would rather live without electricity than water
- you can fiddle with your fuse box, splice a power cord, and plug a generator into your wall so it gives you power - AMAZING.
- If your neighbor across the street (BILL) has electricity, you will hate them (BILL)
- If you have a generator, your neighbors without electricity will hate you
- If you give said neighbors a cold beer iced down by emergency ice, they will forgive you
- I have 8 bottles of wine left, so this better not last more than 8 days
In all seriousness:
We feel really lucky to be in the position we are in. We think the Pinter family beach house is still standing, and out hearts go out our friends in Crystal Beach, Boliver, Beaumont, League City, Galveston and all the other wonderful coastal cities so devastated by this.
Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. We are fine, just a bit inconvenienced. There are many others out there that are in real need of help and support.