Have You Heard of the “Happy Electric Dance”?
Michelle on Sep 14 2008 at 1:37 am | Filed under: The Stuff
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
After of day of Hurricane Ike, I can’t begin to describe how happy I was to see that the lights were on at my house as we drove up the street. I was singing and dancing…I was that happy. I really wasn’t looking forward to no electricity. We are some of the few lucky ones. I live a block from downtown, which is probably the reason. Apparently this location has some perks.
After the winds died down, around 5:00, we went driving around to see what havoc Ike had wrought. One of the neighborhoods in the hills got hit pretty hard. Trees were uprooted and snapped off everywhere.
All day, Sage and I sat in front of the windows and watched the trees in the park across the street lose limbs. Sometimes the sound of the limb popping off sounded like a sharp crack of thunder. I was worried about a tree on the left side of the house, so we stayed on the other side of the house all day. I am so thankful that it didn’t fall!
At around three o’clock, we went outside. Sage had a blast playing in the rain. He and a neighbor girl ran around the park and checked out the creek, which fortunately, never got to overflowing.
I didn’t have a shred of anxiety this time–as opposed to Hurricane Rita, which was one big, long, horrible panic attack. Greg helped out with that by suggesting that we go and volunteer at a shelter last night. I took some magazines, yarn and crochet needles with me. Once we were there, I got a lot of the women hooked up (hehe) with yarn and crochet needles, and taught a couple of people how to do it. It made me feel really good to have those interactions. Lots of the people spoke Spanish, so I got to practice. 
When we got back home, I had totally forgotten how worried I was about the hurricane. It definitely got me “out of myself”.
We had FUN during this hurricane. I feel a little guilty about it, but it beat the hell out of being a nervous wreck.
Oh, and speaking of not being nervous–about a hour after a major limb went down, our neighbor was out there with a chainsaw cutting up the pecan wood for his barbecue pit! 70 mph winds and all! Watching him was inspiring, somehow.
Now, here’s to hoping that the school doesn’t get their electricity hooked back up for a few days…
ITK code for Singing The Sky:
This is terrific news–electricity, helping out, and MAYBE no school for a couple of days. I’m glad that the storm wasn’t as awful as predicted. Whew.
Margaret’s last blog post..TGIF
Glad that you are doing well and having fun!
Kelvin Kao’s last blog post..Oh My God Oh My God Oh My God
I’m glad to hear that you did all right in this one. I just talked with one of my old college friends in Houston, and he’s sitting in the hot and the dark now, with no estimate of when the power will be back on. He said that his hand-crank radio said that power was out for something like 90% of Houston, so it might be a while.
I’m so glad you, your family, and your home are all right. I agree with you not having electricity is terrible. In fact I have a back up generator on my with list. That being said let’s hope the schools electricity is a low priority.
Emma’s last blog post..How Electoral Votes Work
Glad you are all OK and have power!
Kamsin’s last blog post..Coffee
So glad you guys are okay and have electricity! Woo-hoo! Glad school is out for a few days too.
Lee Anne’s last blog post..Still waiting…
So relieved that you are fine and that you actually had some “fun” with this — what a great idea to help out at the shelter and teach crotcheting! Having the power out, and not having any idea when it’ll be back on, is so depressing. I can deal with a day but beyond that is just awful. Great news!
Tonya’s last blog post..Title? Who Needs a Stinkin’ Title?
Phew! Glad you’re okay!
And what’s this, people are talking about the weather and I’m not involved?! I’ve been in a hurricane once in my life (the infamous “Michael Fish hurricane”), when I was almost too young to remember it. Generally, I don’t like windy weather. I’m too willowy for it.
Pacian’s last blog post..Cloud Swirls on Saturn
Hey M,
Glad that you had a (relatively) stress-free hurricane! Seriously, glad all is well and you also get a few days off from work… whoo hoo!
xx,
JP/deb
JanePoet ~ JP/deb’s last blog post..Autumn Invitation
I’m glad to hear that you all made it through OK….oh, and don’t feel bad about having fun while it was going on!
Nick’s last blog post..I’m making progress, eventually I’ll be caught up.