It's been a year now since we lost our wonderful dog. We still miss her terribly, hug your pet today.
And, on to more mundane activities. A few minutes after our 5:30am alarm clock went off, we heard the crackle of the power transformer outside and the power was out. Apparently it will be out all morning. Lucky us, out of half of million people in Tampa, we're one of the 31 households with no power. Across the street still has power, and over a block has power - just not our side of the block.
However, I'm going to look at this as a lucky practice run for the summer lightning, storms and hurricanes that probably will affect us again. We happen to have dozens of glade candles still in the stock pile room for gifts, but they turned out to be handy for light this morning. We also have a couple plug in flashlights. Luckily, no activities requiring water involve electricity - except the coffee which DH had set on a timer to be completed at 5:25am. I thought we would be ready quicker than usual, but indecision on plan B for breakfast with no microwave or toaster, made cold cereal the choice. We took our real breakfast - a hard boiled egg and turkey bacon to work to eat later - minus the toast. The thought crossed my mind if we should get a generator someday, since we do have 3 refrigerators and a chest freezer full of food if there were a long outage, but I think I'll do that after about 24 hours of no power. We could always store stuff at our neighbors house across the street, since they still have power.
So, a little list of Hurricane preparedness things to do when you lose power.
- Candles and flashlight. Also need a lighter or match handy to light that candle.
- You could preprogram the electric company into your phone, they let you text when your power is out. In Tampa, if you have TECO just text OUT to 35069.
- Don't open your refrigerator or freezer, and if you must make it quick.
- Unplug electronics that may be damaged from a power surge when power is restored.
- Keep window coverings down to prevent sun from heating up the house.
- Minimize opening doors to outside, keep the cool air trapped in your home.
We managed to get ready and eat and get to work, all without power in the house. Amazing.
