"Simple Pleasures Found During a Hurricane" or "Our Adventures with Ike "

As the winds began to pick up on Saturday morning, it became clear that we would be spending the day at home. Weldon was on call to help hook up generators and portable showers for the evacuees at the Civic Center. He was called out early Saturday morning but returned before the first blasts of Ike made it to Marshall. After checking on his family in Houston, who were doing fine, in spite of 80 mph wind and no electricity, Weldon made multiple trips outside to check on the weather and was monitoring it on the internet, as well.
We went about our day in our normal weekend fashion - the children watching cartoons, playing video games, Esther treating the cat to a ride in a baby stroller, Jadan staging Lego battles all over the house. I busied myself with a mound of laundry. Esther begged us to make some potato soup, her favorite fall comfort food. So, she and her Daddy busily cut up the tubers and set them to boil.
After lunch. the gusts became more significant outside and I was nervously awaiting the wail of the dreaded "duck and cover" siren. I curled up on the couch with Mr. Biggs, my faithful snuggle companion, a stack of magazines and crossword puzzles and tried to keep my mind off of the storm.
Without a flicker to warn us, the electricity was suddenly gone. We heard a yelp from Jadan who was in the middle of an epic battle with a Wii enemy. Once it was determined the power would be out for a while, he shrugged his shoulders and proclaimed that he was going to take a nap. No sooner had the lights left than Weldon's phone rang. It was "the boys", our "extended family" members, Grant and Jordan. They were alone, in the dark, at Grant's little house and apparently wanted to be with "family". Within minutes they were at our front door with sheepish grins. I'm glad my home is viewed as somewhat of a haven.
We headed to the kitchen, the hub of our home, and sat for a moment staring at each other, as if to say, "What do we do now?". Weldon was the first to speak, "How about some coffee or hot tea?". There was a room full of takers. As the flames flickered under the kettle, I was grateful that my dear husband had insisted on buying a gas stove instead of an electric.
My dad came across the street to check on us and Esther begged to go keep Grandma company. There was a lull in the storm, so we bundled her up and watched as she crossed the"river" to Grandma's house. The house became quiet with Esther away and Jadan still napping, so we sat around our round table and began to play a game of cards by candlelight.
Before too long, a bleary-eyed Jadan awoke and was drawn into the candlelit kitchen. We had just finished a hand of cards and were beginning to get hungry. None of us wanted to prepare a large meal, so we broke into our dry-good snack reserves. Peanut-buttered saltines, dry cereal by the fistful and the coveted Hershey's bar from our Smores' camping stash - perfect fare for a storm-induced candlelight dinner. What happened next was my favorite part of the evening and a memory I will forever cherish.
Grant gave Jadan his favorite childhood novel, a fantasy book called Redwall, for Christmas. Jadan had yet to read it, so we, still sitting around the candlelit table, opened the book and passed it around the table, reading it aloud, chapter by chapter. Each reader interpreted the story and characters with animated voices. Before we knew it, an hour had passed. The kitchen chairs became uncomfortable, so we withdrew into the living room and read by candle and flashlight for another hour or more. We closed the book as the mantle clock showed the midnight hour and Jadan had already began to doze off to sleep. The "boys" began to head out, then realized that the windows of Grant's house were painted shut and that they would not be able to have any air circulation. We insisted that they stay with us and we made up our couches into beds. The cross-breeze from all the opened windows was pleasant enough and we were all quickly asleep. At one o'clock, we awoke with a start because the lights all flashed on and our appliances started beeping and humming. We gratefully turned off the lights and drifted back to sleep.

I was awakened by Weldon telling me that he and the boys were heading across town to help our friend Cindy hook up her generator. A tree had fallen on her power line and she was going to be without power for several days. I walked outside to see the the sun shining through a beautiful blue sky. The air was crisp and clean. The only indication that there had been a storm was Mom and Dad working to clear away branches that had littered their yard. We walked around the neighborhood to check on our neighbors and to survey the damage.

Our patio

Our yard

One street north

One street north

One block east

On block west

Something completely unharmed

Looks like we had been very blessed. All our neighborhood friends fared well and were out cleaning up the mess of leaves and branches. I went home and did the same. Jadan and I collected hundreds of acorns from the limbs that fell from our beautiful oak tree. Weldon was very excited to be able to propagate them because they are so green. Weldon was called out to help at the Civic Center again but Jadan, my Dad, and I worked in our yard all afternoon, raking up leaves and sticks, busting up the larger branches and burning them in our neighbors fire pit. Mom made a dish of lasagna and called us over for lunch. As I was walking to her house, I heard a large bang one street over. I ran in the direction of the sound and found myself with a group of neighbors looking at a sparking snapped wire dangling above Merritt Street. I went into the house and sure enough, our power was out again. My parents house was unaffected, so we had lunch with them, then went back to work. Emergency vehicles came to the scene of the snapped wire, but all they were able to do was surround it with caution cones and wait for the electric company.

I soaked some black-eyed peas. We cooked up our almost thawed out ground beef from the freezer and made Weldon's delicious dirty rice. We had a down-home feast and invited "the boys" back over to help us eat it all up. We spent another evening reading by candlelight. The air was so cool this evening, sleeping without air conditioning was very enjoyable. We were even chilled when we awoke the next morning.

School was canceled on Monday and Tuesday, an added blessing. I drove to our school on Monday morning to pick up my paycheck. The main road to the school had a pine tree that had been uprooted and laid across it. Power lines were snapped and tangled in its branches. A crew have removed enough of the tree for the street to be passable, but it was scary to maneuver past it. We saw fallen trees all around town and I was glad to get back home. I spent over an hour hand washing dishes, thanking God all the while for the blessing of a dishwasher. I cleaned up in the yard a little more and was so grateful to see the Swepco eletric company truck pull up to the still dangling wire that had stolen our power. Within 30 minutes, the hard-hat wearing heroes had restored power to our little part of the world and there was much rejoicing!!

I returned to the house and immediately was aware of how noisy a power-filled house can be. The air cleaners were humming, the washing machine churning, the radio and TV talking. I almost missed being off "the grid" and the simple, quiet, slowed-down way of living we had experienced the last two days.

After dinner, we retreated to the living room, turned down the lights, opened Redwall and continued to read until the children drifted off to sleep. Maybe we can hang on to some simple pleasures for a little while longer.