Saturday, September 3, 2011

Not Exactly Retracted...But Reclassified

...because Hurricane Irene was a bigger problem than I first anticipated.

I did get to the store, without a problem in fact. Hardly anyone was on the roads, though the trees were definitely swaying. Once I got into the grocery store, I looked around and found that I was the only shopper. The only other being in the place were the skeleton crew on duty.

Pretty fantastic if you ask me.

I got my few items and headed back into the weather. Once I made it home, I unloaded my spoils (this becomes funny later) and then headed out for lunch.

Problem #1: there was hardly anything open! Driving around, again, hardly anyone on the roads and as each restaurants passed, my outlook on lunch was looking dim. (To answer the unasked questions, yes, I had just purchased food at the store...but it was milk and eggs. I wasn't looking to cook that for lunch.)

Finally, a beacon of light in the distance...cars in the parking lot of an open restaurant. Heading into the Ninety-Nine Restaurant, I was optimistic. (PS...I had never been inside one of these ever). While there was an abbreviated menu, due to the advanced cut scheduling of the staff, I had a very tasty wrap and fries.

Just before heading back to the apartment, more and more people were arriving at the restaurant because of power outages at their homes. I was feeling very happy that we still had power at home.

Watching a movie was next on the agenda, especially with the weather being what it was. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 was placed into the DVD player and before I knew it, I fell asleep for a good portion of the movie (I had seen it enough before, so I wasn't missing anything). As the movie was ending, it was decided to go see Part 2, which was still in theatres (but barely). After looking up the time and hopping in the car to head out to the theatre, I was sitting in a seat just as the previews were beginning to roll.

The movie let out around 6pm. Dinner was decided upon (since my life revolves around food) and the wait was fairly long at Texas Roadhouse. Since I wasn't extremely hungry, it wasn't a problem and around 6:45pm my table was available (PS...remember that time).

After a tasty dinner, again, before leaving the restaurant, I was hearing a lot of people talking about power outages. Again...I was happy that we had power....

Until I looked at my phone.

I had a text from my best buddy Andy, who lives in the same apartment complex, asking if I lost power. I thought that was a very nice question to ask...you know, to check in. Except, the more I thought about it...the more I thought, he would know if I lost power, because double or nothing, he would have lost power too.

Crap.

As I drove into my complex, I could see all of the street lamps were off (not a normal sight at dusk) and many many people out in the parking lots. Definitely not a good sign.

Problem # 2: Walking into my apartment and trying the light switch...in which nothing happened...I was not a happy girl. After further investigation with Andy, I found out that the power went out around 6:45pm (time sound familiar?) and nothing had really happened at that time (the sun was out, no more rain at that point). So, the hope was that they shut down the power to fix a few things.

The next two days we were living my natural and candle light and I was going to bed very early in order to pass time. By 3:45pm on Tuesday, power was restored and all of those 'spoils' I had gotten at the store Sunday morning were just that...spoiled.

So...I kind of retract my early statement of 'the hurricane that never was' to 'the hurricane that passed by...and then I lost power.'

No bueno.

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