Let me first say that my family was extremely lucky this week before, during and after the arrival of Hurricane Sandy. Friends of ours from Pennsylvania to Connecticut are still without power five days after Sandy made landfall. I was able to provision the household without difficulty, we never lost power, and the damage to our property was nearly non-existent (several dead tree branches and a toppled scarecrow notwithstanding). In fact, the worst thing that happened to me had nothing whatsoever to do with a weather event. So first things first, I'm extremely grateful for the easy hand I was dealt this past week.
That said, you learn a lot about yourself during times of crisis, and this week was no exception. In no particular order, here's are some lessons learned from the past seven days.
There is no better motivator than an impending crisis. At the time Sandy was forecast, it was the end of October. There's no reason I shouldn't have had the yard cleaned up and prepared for winter. And yet, the deck chairs were still out, the canopy still up, grill still uncovered, gutters remained uncleaned and various other end-of-summer chores had not been completed. When Hollie and I woke up Sunday to discover that it had not yet started raining, the first thing we did (around 7:45 AM) was head outside get our property squared away. You know how long it took to do all of that? About 90 minutes. There's no reason I should've put all that off until Sandy forced my hand.
Hurricane preparedness is all about the right outfit.
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| 'Nuff said. |
Taking down all of the Halloween decorations before a storm means taking down ALL the decorations, not just the large flat ones. We put the Peanuts characters in the shed on Sunday, but I didn't move the scarecrow or sidewalk stakes.
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| That'll teach me. |
When you know you're going to be stuck in a small house with a toddler for 2-3 days, take your outside time when you can get it. You know when we took LG outside to play as Sandy was bearing down? The same time I was cleaning up the backyard. We bundled her up and chased her around the back and front yard while we straightened up, then Hollie took her to the park while I prepped food in case we lost power. All in all, the only day we weren't able to leave the house for at least a little bit was Monday.
When you know you're going to be stuck in a small house with a toddler for 2-3 days, you better plan some activities ahead of time. Thankfully, we took this lesson to heart before the storm hit. We managed to come up with a list on Saturday and bought anything we needed early on. A partial list of activities LG took part in:
- Made corn muffins
- Made cookies
- Made pancakes
- Made apple sauce
- Painted pumpkins
- Glued stuff to pumpkins
- Started homemade Christmas presents
- Played in Birthday tent (made by my aunt Kathy, and packed away for just such an occasion)
- Hide and seek (which Hollie and I took turns doing. There are maybe three decent hiding places in the house)
- There were many more planned activities, but several days out, and I'm already starting to forget.
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| Yes, I said glued stuff to pumpkins. This might've been the biggest hit of the week. |
If you don't know if/when power is going to go, get your laundry/dishes/cleaning/showering done as quick as you can. I'm not sure we've ever picked up after ourselves as rapidly as we did Saturday and Sunday. We did not want to lose power in the middle of a laundry/dish cycle or some other activity requiring hot water. It all started to fall apart some time on Monday as the continued threat of the storm coupled with the growing exhaustion of chasing LG around led to toys staying wherever they landed when we were done playing.
The dog doesn't care that there's a hurricane, she just doesn't want to go outside by herself when there's that much wind and rain. Few things are more frustrating than knowing that if your dog would just run outside quickly and pee in the yard, you'd both get a lot less wet than you will when you take her for a walk during a hurricane. But just try to explain that to the dog.
Making barbecued spare ribs before power goes out seems like a good idea, but when you least expect it, the food will try to kill you. I shared this on Facebook late Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning, but after the storm was over, I ended up in the Emergency Room to get a chunk of pork dislodged from my throat. I was never in any real danger, but it's worth noting that you can prepare all you want for a particular calamity; it's the one you don't see coming that'll get you.
The ER is no respecter of persons. It doesn't matter who you are or how many kids you've brought with you to the hospital; if you don't appear to be in tremendous pain or have a life-threatening injury, you will wait at least four hours before being seen. I was never happier that Hollie's parents live close by than when I watched three different families with small children come to the ER and just wait... and wait... and wait.
The last thing you want to hear before you go under general anesthesia is an OR nurse asking "Has anyone seen my glasses?" I hope this requires no further explanation.
When you're really, really tired, 40 minutes of general anesthesia makes for a great power nap. I don't think I've ever woken up more refreshed than I did at 11:50 PM on Tuesday night when the drugs wore off.
Being in the ER for 10+ hours really makes you miss your kid. I knew I was going to be okay, but somewhere around the point I had gone 14 hours without food (except the bit trying to kill me), nearly 10 of which were spent waiting in some form at a hospital, I was told I'd be put under for an emergency endoscopy. The waiting, the lack of food, the weariness, and the prospect of something else mixed into my IV drip all combined to make me really sad. At that moment, I wanted more than anything to see LG. But I had to wait 'til morning.
So that's it. I know many people had a more eventful couple of days, and some are still dealing with the aftermath of the storm. Did any of you learn anything this week, whether it involved slow-cooked pork or a horrifying effect of climate change?
