Originally published in August, 2011
Mounds and mounds of thick toilet paper – check.
Mountains of turkey burger in the frig – check.
Multiple packs of fresh Duracell batteries – check.
Two hurricane oil lamps – check.
Ready for Hurricane Irene – check check.
Bring it on, Baby!
We’re soo ready for you!
So when she blew into town, it was early Sunday morning, a couple of hours after midnight, and we were asleep. The billowing winds tore up the trees outside our windows, whipping them an inch of their leaves.
And I sat up in bed in the middle of this, scratching a burning itch on my left hand. And just in time to hear a BOOM before the entire house shook into absolute silence.
And that was just great.
Now we’re living back in the Stone Ages. No electricity. No TV. No hot water.
And no electricity for our electric stove for cooking our mountains of turkey burger. It didn’t occur to me — until that moment — that we were quite stocked up with fresh food sitting in our frig and not one can of food in the cabinets.
Not. A. One.
Wha?
Me: How come we didn’t stock up on canned goods? Why did we buy fresh food that we can’t cook without electricity?
Zen Master: Because I don’t do canned food.
Zen Mum: But that’s what people do in an emergency. They buy canned food.
Zen Master: I’m not people.
So how long were we in the Dark Ages? What did we do for food?
Excellent questions.
We were without electricity for three whole bloody days. Our only source of light was the hurricane oil lamps, which Zen Master regularly snarked at us to be careful with, the glass containers tops being quite fragile.
Which he himself promptly dropped and shattered on Day Two.
Good job, Zen Master. Way to go.
As for food, as soon as it was light out that very morning on Sunday, we left the cave for civilization. Strange how these things go, because we passed blocks of houses in a similar situation while another block would be just fine.
The supermarket was just fine, and opened for business. What’s up with that?
After promptly filling up on a hearty breakfast, we bought a portable gas stove, powered by cans of propane gas.
And this little fella made things just fine.
Surprisingly, thankfully, we suffered no food spoilage. Something about the frig being a natural vacuum of cold air, and not opening it too often keeping it cold. But we did get a couple bags of ice for the extreme perishables, dumping the ice into our ice cooler and packing our delicates in it.
All in all, we did alright.
We had fire, we had hot food, we had hot water.
And in the morning of the third day, the electricity finally came back up.
Hallelujah! WOO HOO!
FINALLY! After a freaking earthquake and then this mess of a hurricane, we can finally go back to normal! I mean, I’m tired and I just want to chill out and do absolutely nothing now.
Is that so much to ask?
THE END
