Hurricane Gustav has blown by, and everyone in my immediate circle are doing fine. Here's a brief chronology of what transpired.
A hurricane is a very personal thing. Prior to the event, there's two big decisions: what you do to protect your property, and whether you stay.
My bro and sis-in-law decided to bug out. They went to Georgia on Saturday. I decided to stay, for two reasons. One, I didn't think it would be that terrible where we live, and two, there's bad guys out there. After Katrina, we came back to this House, and there was a looter in the kitchen! I decided to stay here this time, on guard duty.
It's All Relative
The storm hit Monday morning. Sunday afternoon, I got a call from Bro in Georgia. One of our relatives decided he shouldn't be in his House on the coastline during the storm! Could he stay here? Of course! Here's the rub: he has two beautiful dogs, blonde labrador mix, big dogs. Fun dogs. Happy dogs.
The only problem was The Plan. I live in an apartment behind the main House. Because there's two cats, Opie and Princess, up front, the dogs should stay in the back with me. And Miss Priss. Okay...
They were scheduled to arrive around dark, but showed up a couple of hours early. So relative guy walks into the first room, where MP likes to hang out, and knocks on my door. I open the door, and there's two big labs jumping around, and MP is on her perch (the one with the red shag carpet), her back arched up like the best part of a roller coaster!
She's really freaking out. MP makes this sound I've never heard her make before. I grab her, and she sinks her claws into my arm! Digs deep, small trickle of blood. But I keep it together. Relative says the dogs love cats. I tell him that's not the problem! :) As MP attempts to wrestle herself from my grasp, I convince relative that just maybe the dogs should stay up front. He agrees.
Now For The Storm
Later in the evening, Bro calls to see how it's going. I say fine, the storm will come in around dawn, but I wouldn't be up. I'll be staying up late, and get up around 10:00 or so. Call me then. Okay.
Around 8:00 am, the winds are really battering the place, the rain is pounding. But that didn't wake me up. It was the cellphone. Bro: How are you doing? Me: It's raining. What time is it? Bro: Oh, you were sleeping. I'm so sorry. Go back to bed.
I fall back to sleep, and have the strangest dream. In the dream, I'm sleeping, and my Bro keeps calling to see how I'm doing! :) Around 10:00 I get up, and it's just like I figured. We've still got a bunch a wind, a little rain, but no damage. And we've still got electricity! That's a big deal. Because if you lose electricity, it changes everything.
We Lose Electricity
That afternoon, at 2:32 pm, I hear a ka-boom, ka-BOOM! And the power goes out. A transformer blew. Usually, the power company will fix a transformer in two or three hours, tops. But, when you have 50,000 homes around you without power, it changes their priorities. Great. That's just great.
There's two things to deal with when you lose the power. One is the fridge, the perishables. The other is the heat. No more A/C! As the afternoon wore on, I decided it best if I grill those two ribeye steaks before they go bad! :) I asked relative how he liked his steaks cooked. "Not tough," he says. (editor's note: it was a different relative, who also stayed for the storm)
As the evening set in, so did the heat. You get this sheen of sweat on you. It was a long night. Tough to sleep covered in sweat, much less listening to a battery powered radio by candlelight. Surely the power would be on in the morning. Needless to say, Bro kept calling to make sure I was miserable! :)
Finally...
The next morning, the power was still off. Up the street, the power company had these big bucket trucks working on the power lines! I called into work, and they needed me. I couldn't wait on the power. I had to take a cold shower! Two minutes after I got out of the shower, the power came back on!
And that's my "brief" Gustav Recap!
:)
TG
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