Part 2: The Aftermath, and Survival

After our weatherhead was ripped off, it was pretty clear that we wouldn't be getting any power until we paid an electrician to come fix that, so we knew power wasn't an option for Sunday.

So we went in search of something to eat. We ended up with .45 vending machine coffee and a pack of Rainbow Twizzlers that tasted like Pine-Sol. The only thing we could find was the vending machine in Plant II at Andy's work...they had "limited power."

My school was cancelled for Monday, Andy's work was still up in the air. We ended up eating leftover cold pasta from Saturday night for our dinner.

Come Monday, Andy did have to go to work. I stayed home and waited for our electrician. The power company restored power to our neighborhood (not us, though, because of the damage). I ended up throwing away the food in our refrigerator. Our electrician came and fixed everything and I paid him and he left.

At this point, we thought things might be getting better. Instead, they really weren't. The town was under a boil water advisory, which meant that there weren't any restaurants open either. So we lived on Blueberry Muffin Mini Wheats and Cheez-Its Duos for a bit. That made me sick to my stomach.

We also discovered that there was more extensive damage downtown. A lot of historic trees had fallen over, yanking out sidewalks and taking out parts of homes in the process. A few homes in the county were totally destroyed, and there was a lot of recovering to do.

Come Tuesday, Andy had to leave. He had to shower by candlelight at 4 am to get ready to catch his flight. He was in New Hampshire for some training for work from Tuesday-late Thursday. So I was home alone in the dark. I ended up going to T and MJ's for most of Tuesday afternoon/evening. They had some meat that they had salvaged and were going to grill, and we were going to attempt Velveeta Shells and Cheese on the side burner of the grill.

Well....

That didn't work out.

Instead, the grill caught completely on fire. Gas was pouring out the pipes and the whole thing was in flames. It was so horrifying! Everything inside the grill was on fire.

Once we got it put out, we gave the meat a try. The pork chops were still really good. The steak honestly wasn't bad, either.

I spent that night at their house, instead of home alone in the dark. Wednesday, we went to breakfast at a new restaurant. I will not be going back. We'll just say it was a bad experience. A really bad one.

Still no power Wednesday. I was so thankful, though, that we have a gas water heater, so we were still able to have warm showers.

Thursday was more of the same. By this time, school was cancelled for the week. I had thrown away everything that was in our fridge and freezer. There was still no power. I ended up wandering around Wal-Mart trying to figure out what to eat for dinner. I had a Lunchable, apples with dipping sauce, and a candy bar. I was on the phone with my mom for most of my trip, and it was ridiculous. She had to hear me weigh out a crazy number of options. It was like my brain had just frozen up completely, and making simple choices was difficult.

Thankfully, Andy got home late last night. We had burned through most of our candles, so I bought new today. I also bought Andy some new underpants...because he was all out. I went to school for a few hours this morning to do some work there, and when I came home--the people from the power company were in our backyard! We ended up getting power at about 1:15 this afternoon! It was so exciting.

I've been doing laundry ever since--I've never been so thankful to use my washing machine or my vaccuum. I'm going to try to get groceries in the morning, before our soccer game.

I think our lives are starting to get back to normal.