Monday, October 29, 2012

The so-called calm before the storm


• Cleared off the basement floor
• Put a bunch of stuff into the garage
• Raised up our washer and dryer onto tiles
• Bought five jugs water
• Bought lots of soup and other canned goods, along with vital provisions such as Pirate's Booty
• Stared warily up at branches of humongous oak tree that stands over driveway and wondered if any would fall


• Bought a few super-strong flashlights
• Bought Cars 2 flashlight for Max (perhaps the most critical supply of all)
• Bought batteries
• Called fire department to see if placing sandbags around the water heater might help prevent water from saturating it. Answer: not really. Also: nobody selling sandbags near us.
• Cooked up a bunch of frozen things, cause we'll probably lose power and they'll spoil
• Polished off as much ice-cream as we could
• Had small argument with SOMEONE who never got an estimate for a generator
• Snapped last fall photos on porch before it turned into a holy mess


• Took down the American flag from our back porch
• Stared warily up at humongous oak tree some more and sent it good vibes
• Stared at the water heater and sent it good vibes, too
• Called Mom to reassure her we'd be perfectly fine
• Filled our tub with water
• Lined up all our candles
• Promised kids that if we couldn't trick-or-treat Wednesday, we would another night

The calm before the storm? HA!!!

Hope any of you dealing with Hurricane Sandy stay safe.


Flickr/MyArtistSoul


22 comments:

  1. I did the same, except for the trees. And the Cars 2 flashlight, but I wish I had one of those. School is closed, the Metro and all the buses are not running today, and at the moment I'm snug and happy. I just made coffee, while I still can, and am already eyeing my re-stocked chocolate supply, because you HAVE to have chocolate when the power goes out. I think it's in all the books. And by the way, did you know that yahrzeit candles make EXCELLENT emergency candles? They burn for a long time, they don't tip over, and they're really cheap. Stay safe!

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  2. Praying for you and all others in the path of the storm! Stay safe! Sending you lots of Minnesota best wishes!!!

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  3. We have a gas stove, lots of down comforters, candles and assorted LED lighting. We also have a radio, but I will not be happy if we lose power to the electronic babysitter, er, TV, for too long! I also have a day off today--but I have to work tomorrow no matter what!

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  4. I'm from Florida, Sandy just passed us. The winds were extremely strong, please stay safe.

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  5. Take good care of yourselves guys... This Sandy thing has kept us busy all day!

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  6. I hope everyone's safe. The winds outside are fierce! We should be good assuming the kids do not drive us insane. Taking this opportunity to potty train Max, once and for all. What's a little more wetness?

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    1. That is really funny! I hope you all do well and that you and your hubby don't lose your minds. I almost did when a storm knocked out power here. The only thing that kept me sane was watching on a portable dvd the Parent Trap over and over again. I don't know why but it didn't drive me crazy and I have had a soft spot for Lindsay Lohan ever since (she was amazing in that movie).

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  7. Ellen, we were told for a prior storm, that a good place to store water is the washing machine. You can let it fill and then turn it off. Not sure if it's drinking quality but it would be useful to flush toilets with!

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  8. Stop staring at that humongous oak tree! LOL :)

    Seriously, it sounds like you guys are as set as you can be. Stay safe! (And your photo is terrific - I hope your porch doesn't turn into a holy mess!)

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  9. Stay safe and try to stay warm too! Thinking of you and sending positive thoughts.

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  10. Stay safe, sending positive vibes to the tree!

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  11. My advice is a little too late: fill up the gas tank of your car. Gas pumps don't work without power. That was always our first check on our list in Florida. Several times stations were without gas for several days.

    Stay safe!

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    1. Thank you, we actually did that! A lot of people had the same idea because there were gas lines.

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  12. We are doing fine, had power outage but lights are back on. My thoughts are with the people who are struggling right now; woke up to news of people needing to be rescued off their rooftops.

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  13. Good to hear that you weathered the storm OK!

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  14. So, how did the tree do? The tree we feared most appears to be intact. Not so much for some very large branches of our neighbor's tree that fell & took out some of our front curbside tree. It's the ones you fear the least sometimes. I thought the one directly in front might drop a few branches, like maybe a couple feet long, so I moved my car. Thank goodness, since a 30' branch ended up falling.

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    1. That tree is fine, but YES, the ones you fear the least can be pains—another one near our house dropped a tremendous branch in the road but at least there's still room for cars to get by. We still don't have power! I hope you do.

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Thanks for sharing!