That Pesky Hurricane Ike

The remnants of Ike blasted through the greater Cincinnati area yesterday afternoon with sustained winds around 40 mph and gusts stretching into the 70 mph range. The wind storm left behind quite a mess with downed trees, power lines, and over 500,000 residents without electricity.

My power at home has been out since 2 pm yesterday afternoon. Around 5 pm, we decided it was time to pack up the contents of the fridge and freezer (can't believe we'd *just* gone grocery shopping!) and hauled it all down to my in-laws' house (who have been out of town). Thankfully theirs was one of only a handful of neighborhoods with power. We've been here since.

The kids are thrilled with having no school today (it's like a snow day in September!), and talk around town is that most people will be without power for three to five days. Cincinnati wasn't expecting such a strong impact from the storm. Many electrical crews had already been dispatched to the Gulf Coast--they've been called back to deal with the mess here.

My in-laws come home today, and I'm sure they won't mind having five house guests for the next few days. Or mind that they can barely open their fridge without items falling out.

For me, the next few days mean putting a garage remodel on hold (the contractor can't work without power), hoping the tropical fish won't get too chilly, wishing the gas station will reopen before I need more gas, and praying it doesn't rain, because we lost a ton of roof shingles, our eaves are crumpled, and the front porch ceiling is sagging. Oh, and when I went home this morning to check on things I realized that our land-line phones were dead. Thank goodness for cell phones.

All in all, we're one of the lucky ones. But I still hope I don't see another hurricane for a long, long time.

~heather

PS: Happy Birthday to the inimitable Theo.