Blog You Like a Hurricane

Hurricane Irene was not kind to Vermont.  With massive flooding and major damage all over the state, we are in disaster mode currently.  In fact, yesterday I had to evacuate my own personal house because that stupid beaver dammed up our stream and it overflowed.  Of course, it may not have been the beaver’s fault entirely, but you may be interested to know that his dam is gone now, another victim of Hurricane Irene.

But let me back up a little bit.  You see, the day we evacuated was a beautiful sunny day, with no hurricane in sight.    If you want to know how the actual storm went down, well I’ll tell you.

Like everyone else in the country, I spent the latter half of last week being inundated with stormageddon reports from the weather channel, the news channels, and every other channel, so I was getting excited.  You see, generally I like storms.  The last big hurricane I was in was Hurricane Bob, which blew through Massachusetts while I was visiting my grandmother.  I must have been 13 or 14 at the time, and my brother and sister and I kept sneaking outside to try and walk against the wind.  Being young and small, sometimes the wind would win, and we would be blown backwards, which was great fun for us, and near-heart-attack-inducing for my grandmother.  Eventually we had to evacuate their house and our stormy fun ended at some lame shelter, but it was fun while it lasted.

Wandering around outside during a big storm is thrilling.  I love the feeling of the wind and the rain whipping against me as nature takes its best shot in my direction.  Now, I would not go outside directly into a giant hurricane, but as I mentioned yesterday, I was not expecting the stupid thing to come and destroy my state.  We’re not even a coastal state for crying out loud!  We never get actual hurricanes!  I was expecting some gusting winds and a good amount of rain, and I was looking forward to it.

I got home from making pizzas at around 12:30 am after my Saturday night shift, and I was disappointed to see that the rain had not started yet.  I went to bed, eager to wake up to a little bit of weather and maybe a day off of work.  So yes, I was that stupid.

On the actual day of the storm, Sunday, we spent the morning inside, watching it rain.  Ruby and I went outside in it for a few minutes, but the problems began when we lost power.  Now, we lose power fairly regularly out here, and so I was not that surprised about it.  I figured it would be back on soon enough, but of course it wasn’t.  And when the power went out, so did the water.  When I called in to work to see if they had power, they of course reported that they did, and I had better come in and deliver pizzas.

So I drove to work in the hurricane, and then proceeded to spend the worst part of Hurricane Irene driving around delivering food to people who (rightfully so) did not want to leave their homes.  My umbrella was useless in the wind, and by the end of the sopping night, I was wishing that I owned a raincoat.  I did make some good tips though.  Most people were a little sympathetic to the wet pathetic guy standing in the hurricane holding their dinner.

Simone texted me to tell me that the power had come back on shortly after I had left, so I was excited to get home and check weather reports and e-mail and whatnot, but about ten minutes before I finally got home, the power went out again, because the power is a jerk and apparently hates me.  With only my phone to light the way, I stumbled upstairs in the pitch dark and collapsed into my bed, happy to have survived the hurricane without incident, and confident that the power would be back on in the morning.

The power was indeed back on in the morning, but when I looked out the window at the bright sunny day, I noticed that our lawn was now a lake, and that’s when we decided to evacuate, which you can read all about in yesterday’s post.

You will all be relieved to know that I am now sitting in my house typing this on my computer, which I am able to do via the power, which is coursing through the wires in the walls, and via the internet, which is magic.  We have water, power, TV, internet, and we’re back safe and sound.  The lake is gone from our lawn (along with the beaver) and we don’t really have any damage to report.  But next hurricane I think I’ll fill the bathtub with water, just in case.