Well, Ernesto was more than I'd anticipated. We're back from the land of the electrically-challenged, after spending more than 24 hours there. Luckily, no trees moved themselves onto our house or even around our yard, though there were a few down in my neighborhood, and good friends David and Deborah had the top of one tree impale itself onto their home.
Even after the infamous Christmas Eve ice storm of 1998 (14 days without power and a tree on the deck and a two-week old baby in the house) and after Isabel (10 days without power and several trees down without touching the house and a week of constant margarita-drinking with friend Kath), I figured this one - oh, it couldn't be all that much.
Heh heh.
I even took my sweet E out on Friday morning for her hearing test (perfect hearing - yay!! Once we cleared up her congestion, she could hear just fine. She just TALKS VERY LOUDLY). Yes, the van was swerving erratically down the interstate. "It's just a little wind," says I to the the kids. We even went to rent some DVDs, being the optimistic sort that I am.
Two minutes into the DVD the lights went off and so they did stay during the WIND and the torrential rain (something like 10 inches in about 5 hours??) and the WIND and the WIND and the WIND. And I had not checked that we had batteries. I had not shopped for extra water and canned foods and ice. I did, essentially, nothing to prepare. But we were just fine this time. Visions of Katrina did keep running through my head, lest anyone think I may have actually learned not to worry.
So as I now sip the Zwiegelt (Austrian red wine) that my dear husband found for me, in the air-conditioned comfort of my daughter's room (dear son has hijacked my computer in the office), I will relate an interesting conversation I had with son Q last night in the pitch blackness of night after he wandered into my bedroom around 4 am.
Q: "Mommy, I really really want us to have electricity again."
Me: "I know, sweetie. But you know, we think this is so hard and there are so many people in Africa and other places that *never* have electricity. We are really very spoiled.
Q: "But Mom, those people never have had electricity. We miss it because we know what it's like to have it."
Me: "Well yes. That's true. But think of how spoiled we are! We have it all the time and we expect it.
Q: "I don't think we're spoiled, Mommy. I think we're just lucky."
Huh. Take that, you bleeding heart, I-must-place-myself-at-fault-for-the-suffering-of-the-world liberal. He's right, isn't he? The world really doesn't need me to put myself as responsible for everyone's suffering. We are very, very lucky. And I think I am one of the luckiest of all.
3 comments:
Yikes! stay dry and keep safe. Love that boy. What a wise one.
We are lucky. I just got back from Philadelphia where I visited all the major early government sites and remembered what our country is about and what it was founded on. sniff. Lucky indeed. YAY Erin. What a relief!! --LT
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It's good to be able to see the humor in ourselves. :-)
Jen
Hey you... Glad to hear that ya'll didnt get too bad of a hit from Ernesto or whatever they named that storm. I was thinking about ya'll up there. Glad to hear that E just had some fluid in her ears.... I tell you PM, that boy of your's must be a chip off the ole block..... that sounds like something that you would have said at his age. Yes, I would consider us very lucky to have such luxuries. I've been without them for very extended periods and it wasn't any fun(remember the burnt out house that we had to live in for a long while.). It was definitely something that makes you appreciate things more later on in life.
TTYL,
Trouble
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