Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

I keep forgetting that today actually is Halloween. Hurricane Sandy and all of her windy wrath has distracted me from pretty much everything else. Even though we were warned repeatedly about how nasty this storm would be, I didn't really believe it would be that bad. I figured it would die down once it made landfall and we'd all breathe a sigh of relief that Superstorm Sandy was not as "super" as we had been warned.

Turns out Sandy was pretty awful, as anyone with access to a TV, radio, internet, or newspaper already knows. Our city is right on the shore of Lake Erie and we were hit hard. About 85% of the city was without power, starting on Monday evening. As of about 4 hours ago, my power has been restored (hallelujah!!) but much of the area about a mile of east of my house and beyond is still without power and, per news reports, will likely stay that way for a few more days.

I mentioned in my last post about how much I dislike strong winds ands losing power, both of which we experienced in spades the past couple days. Monday night was the worst; the wind howled and we had 60+ mph gusts all night long. At times the windows rattled so loudly I was sure they would blow out. We kept hearing cracks and crashes of trees falling and hitting things, but mostly all we heard was the incredibly loud howling of the wind. It was as if we had a railroad tracks in our backyard with a constant stream of train traffic. And it was cold. No electricity=no heat. Old house=cold house.

We ended up going to my parents house yesterday morning and spending the day and night there. They never lost power, shockingly. I think they were one of just a few streets in the area that was spared, thankfully. Howard, in typical Howard fashion, made a scene with their dog, Izzy, and had to be kept in the basement. Oh Howard. I slept in a sleeping bag on the floor for the first time in probably 8 years. I'll be just fine if it takes another 8 years to have to sleep in a sleeping bag again :)

My phone rang around 7:30 this morning with an automated message from the electric company. I'm glad it was not a real person, because I blurted out "Oh I love you!" when they said my power was back on. I packed up the unreasonable amount of gear we came with as well as what I'd been able to salvage from my freezer/refrigerator and headed home to a house blazing with a bunch of lamps on, since we never turned them off after the power went out. Oh electricity, how I love you so. Thankfully there wasn't much damage to our house/yard. Weirdly, the porch furniture blew all around but my miniature pumpkins didn't move an inch.

Our city, along with just about every city in the Cleveland area, has postponed trick-or-treating until this Sunday which is contributing to the "is today really Halloween?!?" feeling. Nevertheless, Happy Halloween and I hope you and your family stayed safe during Sandy's visit.

~Stacy