And Then There Was Light

Friday, September, 12th at 9:50 pm - Lights go out!

Sunday, September 28th at 3:20 pm - Lights go back on!

Okay, when the hurricane came and Centerpoint announced that it could take 2-3 weeks for people to get their power back. I literally thought to myself, "Man, that's gonna suck for those people". Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be one of those people.

It has been an interesting two weeks and two days without power. It has brought out the best and worst in people. There were the good things. Kids playing outside, neighbors talking, lots of walks with the kids. And then there were the bad things. No air conditioning in 90 degree heat, whining children and PARENTS, bathing children in the near dark, washing dishes by hand, dragging the laundry to everyone's house to get done, no internet, no TV . . . the list could go on and on.

I wish I could say that I had made the most of two weeks without power. There was definitely some more quality time with the kids but even after a few days I seemed to just aimlessly go about my day. I think a lot of it had to do with the uncertainty of the whole situation. In my mind, my power was going to come on any second so why did I need to hook up all of this stuff to the generator. It was hard for me to figure out each day what I wanted to accomplish even though there was plenty to do. If I had known that we would have been without power for so long, I would have done things differently. I would have set up everything right the first time instead of just piece mealing the whole house set-up. Some things I did figure out by the end of the two weeks, your vacuum cleaning and curling irons work great with the generator power. Microwaves - not so good.

The other thing I found difficult about the time with no power was how disconnected you felt with the rest of the world and even your community. When all of Houston, didn't have power it wasn't so bad. You felt a bond with them -- we are all in this together. Then slowly, one by one, all of my friends power came on. You start to feel alone. You realized they were no longer part of "the club". A club that you so desperately wanted to get out of but didn't know how. You were very happy for your friends but you just couldn't help but feel a little sad to. They were moving on and you were still there with no power. Now, I am on the other side. There are a few people in my neighborhood who did not get power yesterday. I can see the same hurt in their eyes as they realize that we are now moving on without them.

The two weeks without power were filled with peeks and valleys as far as my attitude was concerned. There were moments that I felt I could be the covergirl for how to remain calm and be optimistic about the whole thing. I had moments where I knew that the world was bigger than just me and my family. It wasn't just about me and that one day soon, the electric linemen would be on my street. There was a lot for these people to do and I needed to just be patient. And then there were the other moments. The ones where I started acting like my 3 year old jumping up and down and screaming , "It's my turn - I want my electricity and I want it now!"

Now, for a word about the electric linemen. My hats are off to them. They came from all over the country. The ones in my neighborhood were from North Carolina. I enjoyed talking to them as they ate their lunch under my shade tree. This is one of the main parts of their job is to travel to other parts of the country restoring power after a disaster. They told me that they never know when they leave when they will make it back home. They worked very hard. There was some definite down time while waiting for parts or instructions but they were doing their best to get the lights on. It didn't help that these people were asked every 5 minutes when are the lights going to come back on. Well, at 3:20 pm yesterday - it was my turn and the light came back on.

Here are some pictures from the replacement of our transformer in the backyard.