Thoughts... 9/21/2005 05:12:00 PM
So I was shaving my head (it was overdue) before my afternoon shower (also, overdue) and had some time to think. And as I was in the shower (as everyone knows, the best time to think), some thoughts were popping in.

Quite obviously, I've never lived through a hurricane. As the link in my previous post points out, Rita is becoming quite the little hurricane herself, already among the 10 largest in history. So I'm standing there (washing with no hot water, as D is getting as much laundry in as possible before the storms and I think was also doing dishes at the time), and these random thoughts are popping in my head, in no particular order:

  • I read/heard earlier that it's a good idea to fill up one's bathtub with water before the storm - that way you know you have clean(ish) water for washing, flushing the toilet, etc. I hadn't thought about the whole "how do I flush the toilet if there's no water" question. I'm regretting not picking up one (or five) of those five-gallon buckets at Home Depot last night.
  • While on the topic of buckets - yeah, definitely should have picked up a couple of those. What if we spring a leak?
  • I thought it would be a good idea to create a to-do list pre-storm. You know, like "send an email to EVERYONE telling them how you intend to be in contact. I think we're going to have a phone trickle. First, we're going to turn the ringer on our landline (we only use it for DSL, but I bought a cheapie in case of a needed 911 call) as that's most likely to be the first one back up and working - quite possibly even before we get power back. Second, we're going to send that email with all our phone numbers on it, so people know how to reach us (please don't call during/immediately after the storm unless you're our parents. We have limited batteries). More on the phone trickle later. This is becoming QUITE the point.
  • How do we get information? We've got satellite TV, which will without a doubt be knocked out during the storm. Our power will definitely be knocked out, and I'm guessing that our water will stop working/be no good at some point. How do we know that our water is no good, and to stop using it? (Hopefully batteries are on their way, via FedEx Overnight, from my employer in Chicago. And even if not, we have a TON of AA's and two walkmans that will do just fine).
  • I think that our first reliable phone post-storm will be one of the cells (We have 2 Nextel phones and 2 Cingular phones) or our landline, but definitely Dana's phone at work. If we're stuck here for a couple days we might venture out "Escape from New York" style to use the phone at D's hospital. Assuming it's not underwater like after Allison.

Those weren't all the thoughts I had, but I want to start getting to-do's on the book (OK, paper) before I start forgetting. But as I promised updates, well, I had to post.

So far, so good. But the stress level is slowly getting higher.

(And welcome home, Pablo.)
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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

think of it this way :

you and d will have a nice quiet time together, working towards mutual goals in romatic candle light.

it'll be like a honeymoon!

(nb : ice cubes will be an excellent source of short term water [pull them out as soon as the power craps out])

while im sure you guys will be fine, i am keeping my fingerrs crossed.

posted at 5:44 PM

 

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