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Climbing into the hot tub. Ahhhhhhh .... need this ...
We live in INdy and lost power in the storms Friday night. Aside from an apt bldg collapse, I don't know of loss of life or injuries, but I honestly haven't really heard or seen much of the news. no trees into houses here, but lots of trees down. We have LARGE trees, being a very old neighborhood. We lost one, did no damage, and was nice enuf to fall into our brush pile. I can leave that baby there for a long time. If a tree had to fall, that was a great pick.
So Sat I get up and there's still no power, so after about 10 hours without, I start consolidating food since we have an outer fridge and an inner. Brought all the frozen in from the out to the good freezer and perishables from that fridge. Left drinks.
After a major ice run, and 3 coolers and a trashcan later, whatever is frozen should remain so, whatever should be COLD (dairy), is, and whatever can go without refrigeration, does. Cleaned out a lot of old condiments and salad dressings. Put big pans of ice in the fridges. and a couple beers.
The problem is, we're on a well so when we lose power, we lose flush. With some clever water tricks, we can fill the tank and the bowl and flush. It's a lot of water hauling, but it works. Nice health club has nice showers. We decided early on to stick it out and save the food while some neighbors were carting their food to friends. While I have a Costco card, we weren't too loaded. Outside fridge and freezer didn't have as much as we normally have stashed. We had just eaten thru our stores while my brother was here for the Indy 500. Two major cookouts and race chow plus he's a bigger eater than we are.
Since we got about 3.5 inches of rain Fri, according my gauge, and it fell very fast, like within an hour or two, we knew the basement would leak. Old cinder block, been a project the last many years to prevent it. Happily, that 3.5 very quickly did far less damage than the Labor Day Rain of the Century a few years back, that dumped 7 inches in 24 hours, I think? Whatever we've been doing has helped, and maybe the earthquake did, too? Who knows, it could have smashed some of the regular water routes thru the ground. All I know is, THANK GOD the basement wasn't worse. No his - n - shopvacs. Damned little light for mopping. So we sopped. Brought down the biggest oldest towels and threw them out and brought them to drip in a bucket. It was much less work than it could have been, didn't knock anything over or off due to lack of light. only 2 "sopping sessions" (heavy to lug up the stairs) and no leakage on the front wall or either side wall aside from the back corners.
This could have been much worse on many fronts.
It was pretty hot out, mid80s, but with trees and breeze we were doing ok Saturday, still getting pretty sweaty. I heated cleaning water on the grill so we could wash up. Washing hands was the worst challenge. Ran thru a lot of hand sanitizer.
I started grilling Sat afternoon after hearing the recorded power company message saying that 70000 were without power, full restoration by late monday.
Used up chicken leftovers with torillas and cheese and condiments for quesadillas. Had thawed spring rolls, burgers, potato salad. Fruit salad had been breakfast, so chocolate pudding for dessert.
House was unbearably hot Sat night, after the breeze died down, so we gathered candles and flashlights and picnicked on the deck and played cards. We sooo needed some relaxing fun after all the work. Camping at home is not as easy as it sounds.
Wake up Sunday, no power still. Ache. Exhausted. Get my hot water for coffee and washup going on the grill. Damn, gonna be another hot day. call power company again. revised est of 65000 without, 19000 to go. sigh.
ice run. good thing we workout, those buggers are heavy. We were lucky that all the places had the giant bags since they keep so much better. Also glad we have 4 coolers.
More candles, since the message is still saying late Monday for power, and there aren't as many people affected here as in other parts. We could be very low on the list. Another big dumping of cooler water to become flush water. Move food around, throw out a few more things, find out what else has thawed, what's still frozen. ice up.
Saw the power guys! Big tree they have to remove a couple houses down.
Grill. The leftovers (spring rolls, quesadilla), the newly thawed (Mango Shrimp from Costco! Great on the grill!!). Gorged. Sunday dinner was probably the best meal, in my book. Can't wait to try those shrimp cooked the right way! Thawed strawberries with cream cheese for dessert. Not something I'd serve company, but it was good enuf for the circumstances. KEEP EATING!!!
Keep watching power guys. Finally the trucks move but not far, another couple houses down, a second big tree to remove. Crap, this line goes back pretty far. How many stops will they have to make??? There had been a chorus of chain saws all weekend, but the proximity and power of their chain saws sang a beautiful tune. When the trucks didn't move very far, our hearts sank. when it was starting to get dark we got power back. I was ready to give up and start the candles when it came back on.
Then move the food from the coolers to teh fridge a couple hours after power is restored. effort, lots of damned effort. wiped out.
TAKE HOT SHOWERS!! FLUSH TOILETS!!!
Wow, I've missed modern society. there is still much cleanup from Doing Without.
But several things occurred to me over the last few days. I am still certain that we're a good team. I like getting that reminder. We don't fight and I don't recall many disagreements nor raised voices thru this. It was hot, and messy, and hard, and frustrating. And somewhat peaceful. We did our share of laughing.
We know how long food will keep in the main and second fridge and freezer. I've refined my cooler packing skills to meet specific food refridgeration needs. We have a system for hand washing basin, washing dishes, washing icky stuff.
Of course, today there is much more washing to do. After the storms we didn't sweep the deck so have been tracking all kinds of crap inside. Mostly wood floors, some ceramic, carpeted bedroom. The bath rugs are done and outside drying before disposal or reuse in the shed or garage, tho I'd have to hose em with some kind of cleaner before I'd keep em. Blech.
"Sopping towels" to wash, and prob'ly need new towels to match those bath rugs. Lots of coolers and tubs and such out back drying. some need to be cleaned better, some can jump right back into trash can status when they dry. Need to clean the freezer now that it isn't the fridge of last resort any more. Mop the floors in the basement with bleach.
Sigh. Do need to go to work tomorrow, so won't get most of that done and it doesn't hafta be done today. My feet are still killing me and whatever it was I pulled in my back is still bothering. I slept 11 hours last night and will need another major sleep tonight, so don't want to exhaust myself today, tho I've already done a ton of stuff that needed to be done. I'm going to go sit on the couch in front of the tv and play Zoo Tycoon.
So, that was my exciting weekend. everyone is fine and we're grateful for that.
We live in INdy and lost power in the storms Friday night. Aside from an apt bldg collapse, I don't know of loss of life or injuries, but I honestly haven't really heard or seen much of the news. no trees into houses here, but lots of trees down. We have LARGE trees, being a very old neighborhood. We lost one, did no damage, and was nice enuf to fall into our brush pile. I can leave that baby there for a long time. If a tree had to fall, that was a great pick.
So Sat I get up and there's still no power, so after about 10 hours without, I start consolidating food since we have an outer fridge and an inner. Brought all the frozen in from the out to the good freezer and perishables from that fridge. Left drinks.
After a major ice run, and 3 coolers and a trashcan later, whatever is frozen should remain so, whatever should be COLD (dairy), is, and whatever can go without refrigeration, does. Cleaned out a lot of old condiments and salad dressings. Put big pans of ice in the fridges. and a couple beers.
The problem is, we're on a well so when we lose power, we lose flush. With some clever water tricks, we can fill the tank and the bowl and flush. It's a lot of water hauling, but it works. Nice health club has nice showers. We decided early on to stick it out and save the food while some neighbors were carting their food to friends. While I have a Costco card, we weren't too loaded. Outside fridge and freezer didn't have as much as we normally have stashed. We had just eaten thru our stores while my brother was here for the Indy 500. Two major cookouts and race chow plus he's a bigger eater than we are.
Since we got about 3.5 inches of rain Fri, according my gauge, and it fell very fast, like within an hour or two, we knew the basement would leak. Old cinder block, been a project the last many years to prevent it. Happily, that 3.5 very quickly did far less damage than the Labor Day Rain of the Century a few years back, that dumped 7 inches in 24 hours, I think? Whatever we've been doing has helped, and maybe the earthquake did, too? Who knows, it could have smashed some of the regular water routes thru the ground. All I know is, THANK GOD the basement wasn't worse. No his - n - shopvacs. Damned little light for mopping. So we sopped. Brought down the biggest oldest towels and threw them out and brought them to drip in a bucket. It was much less work than it could have been, didn't knock anything over or off due to lack of light. only 2 "sopping sessions" (heavy to lug up the stairs) and no leakage on the front wall or either side wall aside from the back corners.
This could have been much worse on many fronts.
It was pretty hot out, mid80s, but with trees and breeze we were doing ok Saturday, still getting pretty sweaty. I heated cleaning water on the grill so we could wash up. Washing hands was the worst challenge. Ran thru a lot of hand sanitizer.
I started grilling Sat afternoon after hearing the recorded power company message saying that 70000 were without power, full restoration by late monday.
Used up chicken leftovers with torillas and cheese and condiments for quesadillas. Had thawed spring rolls, burgers, potato salad. Fruit salad had been breakfast, so chocolate pudding for dessert.
House was unbearably hot Sat night, after the breeze died down, so we gathered candles and flashlights and picnicked on the deck and played cards. We sooo needed some relaxing fun after all the work. Camping at home is not as easy as it sounds.
Wake up Sunday, no power still. Ache. Exhausted. Get my hot water for coffee and washup going on the grill. Damn, gonna be another hot day. call power company again. revised est of 65000 without, 19000 to go. sigh.
ice run. good thing we workout, those buggers are heavy. We were lucky that all the places had the giant bags since they keep so much better. Also glad we have 4 coolers.
More candles, since the message is still saying late Monday for power, and there aren't as many people affected here as in other parts. We could be very low on the list. Another big dumping of cooler water to become flush water. Move food around, throw out a few more things, find out what else has thawed, what's still frozen. ice up.
Saw the power guys! Big tree they have to remove a couple houses down.
Grill. The leftovers (spring rolls, quesadilla), the newly thawed (Mango Shrimp from Costco! Great on the grill!!). Gorged. Sunday dinner was probably the best meal, in my book. Can't wait to try those shrimp cooked the right way! Thawed strawberries with cream cheese for dessert. Not something I'd serve company, but it was good enuf for the circumstances. KEEP EATING!!!
Keep watching power guys. Finally the trucks move but not far, another couple houses down, a second big tree to remove. Crap, this line goes back pretty far. How many stops will they have to make??? There had been a chorus of chain saws all weekend, but the proximity and power of their chain saws sang a beautiful tune. When the trucks didn't move very far, our hearts sank. when it was starting to get dark we got power back. I was ready to give up and start the candles when it came back on.
Then move the food from the coolers to teh fridge a couple hours after power is restored. effort, lots of damned effort. wiped out.
TAKE HOT SHOWERS!! FLUSH TOILETS!!!
Wow, I've missed modern society. there is still much cleanup from Doing Without.
But several things occurred to me over the last few days. I am still certain that we're a good team. I like getting that reminder. We don't fight and I don't recall many disagreements nor raised voices thru this. It was hot, and messy, and hard, and frustrating. And somewhat peaceful. We did our share of laughing.
We know how long food will keep in the main and second fridge and freezer. I've refined my cooler packing skills to meet specific food refridgeration needs. We have a system for hand washing basin, washing dishes, washing icky stuff.
Of course, today there is much more washing to do. After the storms we didn't sweep the deck so have been tracking all kinds of crap inside. Mostly wood floors, some ceramic, carpeted bedroom. The bath rugs are done and outside drying before disposal or reuse in the shed or garage, tho I'd have to hose em with some kind of cleaner before I'd keep em. Blech.
"Sopping towels" to wash, and prob'ly need new towels to match those bath rugs. Lots of coolers and tubs and such out back drying. some need to be cleaned better, some can jump right back into trash can status when they dry. Need to clean the freezer now that it isn't the fridge of last resort any more. Mop the floors in the basement with bleach.
Sigh. Do need to go to work tomorrow, so won't get most of that done and it doesn't hafta be done today. My feet are still killing me and whatever it was I pulled in my back is still bothering. I slept 11 hours last night and will need another major sleep tonight, so don't want to exhaust myself today, tho I've already done a ton of stuff that needed to be done. I'm going to go sit on the couch in front of the tv and play Zoo Tycoon.
So, that was my exciting weekend. everyone is fine and we're grateful for that.
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