Frankenstorm

Frankenstorm really did a number on us. The dark gray gloom and rain, rain, rain started days before the storm hit. We are now on what I think is our 7th straight day of dark daytime skies and almost constant rain. I'll be honest with you, my mood is gloomy and I don't have much energy for the kids. But I just read a dear friend's blog, and she's really inspired me to take advantage of what today is handing me and get down on the floor some serious playtime with the kids. So I'm going to make this post brief... I've got some playing to do!

Even though we don't live along the coast, we were greatly affected by the 1000-mile wide storm that was Sandy (not to mention the nor'easter and artic winds that clashed with Sandy to create the Frankenstorm). The worst part of the storm was Monday night. When the power went out at our house around 10:30 p.m. we saw what we thought was lightening. It only took a moment for us to realize that the odd green flashes we were seeing were not lightening, but the transformers in the neighborhood blowing as trees were toppling over onto them.

On Tuesday the rain and some smaller gusts continued. Most of the schools were closed because they were without power. As I reported our own power outage, the power company's website informed me that 30% of the county's customers were still without power! The storm did minimal damage to our yard. Lots of small branches and almost all of our tree's remaining leaves were now on the ground. It looked almost as if a tree had exploded into a million tiny pieces. Wet leaves were also stuck all over our house, giving it a polka-dotted effect.

(Ugh, I'm getting wordy like I usually do, so I'm going to really pick up the pace here.)

Today is Thursday and we are living at Adrian's mom's house, with about half of our fridge's contents shoved into her extra fridge. Our power has not been restored yet, and we've been told that our neighborhood is a low priority and we should expect to be without power for several days. Even though we have a gas stove and could potentially tough it out at home, the house is WAY too cold (the outside temp is in the low 40s). Trick-or-treating for most of the area has been postponed until Sunday, but the kids were able to go to school yesterday where they enjoyed dressing in costume, a school-wide Halloween parade (indoors b/c it was still raining), and classroom parties. For our Halloween evening, Oo entertained all of us by reading aloud from several Halloween story and poetry books.

Unfortunately, the school roof sustained some damage from the storm, and the principal had to cancel school today b/c the conditions inside the building were "not safe" for the students and staff. The "not safe" part of her email has me concerned. Is she talking about a lot of slippery puddles, or has the old building's asbestos been exposed?

I could worry about the school's roof. I could also worry that we still won't have a porch light to turn on this Sunday. I could worry about how Adrian's going to miss trick-or-treating b/c he's scheduled to work a school fundraiser on Sunday. I could worry that our pumpkins will be rotting by Sunday, especially the one that Adrian spent over an hour carving to look like Luke Skywalker. I could worry about all of the food we had to throw away and need to replace.

I could worry, but I won't. Things could be much worse. So many people lost their homes and all of their possessions in this storm. Some even lost loved ones. We're mildy inconvenienced. That's all, no more. We're staying in a warm house with loving family. The kids have no school today, and, other than a load of laundry, I have no chores. You know what that means? Time to play!