Hurricane Ike in Ohio?

Go figure! How does that happen? I have never experienced such a wild ride. The winds were like anything I'd ever seen. How does a hurricane get so far from the ocean? Well, I know it really wasn't still a hurricane - but still!! We have soft maples in our yard. I really hate them because they have roots that scurry along the surface of the ground. However, they DO provide shade, and they would be extremely expensive to remove - at least $1200 a tree. Two really should go, the other 2 I could put up with forever, if necessary. But in this storm - big, chunky limbs fell out of 3 of the trees. They about covered the front lawn, and there was a whopper in the back as well. We were fortunate that they didn't hit the house or cars. Many in town were not so lucky.

We did however, lose power. What a learning experience. No TV's, no computer, no fans, no air conditioning...no REFRIGERATOR. Needless to say, after the 2nd day - the food was on its way to becoming pretty rank. Thankfully, a dear friend took all my thawing meat and cooked it up and froze it in her freezer for me. Still, we lost nearly $300.00 in food between the two refrigerators. I feel badly for the people in this neighborhood that live at the far southern end. Most of them have little to live on - and even less to afford a loss like that.

So, in the midst of our playing Amish - my husband and I left for Columbus, OH for our anniversary. We went to see the broadway production of Lion King. (if ever you have the opportunity this is a must see!!) We stayed at a hotel in town that we could literally walk indoors from the hotel to the theater. We had a wonderful meal at a fancy Italian restaurant. The next day we headed for the Easton Mall - but needed some breakfast first! Guess what! The outlying areas of Columbus got hit worse than we did near Dayton!! We couldn't find breakfast!! Restaurants were closed and had lost all their food.

Finally, about 11 a.m., we find one restaurant that looked promising - and had a nice breakfast. During that time I reached my friend who let my daughter stay with them overnight. She told us the fire departments were warning people to unplug all their appliances if their electricity had been out - because it might zap them out when the electricity went back on. So instead of experiencing Easton - we decided to head home. We stopped though, in an Amish area and picked up some gifts for my girlfriend and our neighbor across the street - who never lost his power. He offered us the use of his washer and dryer and also took all our debris away for us. We saw a lot of that kindness going on around us. That was good to see.

Well, all in all. It was an interesting experience. I'm not sure I'm ready to go through that again anytime soon....but now we know we'd best start preparing better for emergencies. Lesson learned!!