Irene time line

Saturday- The final prep, church is (woefully) cancelled, and Sarah slept in the pack n’ play in our room (I think we bothered her, hehe!).

Sunday- The storm is supposed to hit from 5am-5pm. Sure enough, the strong gusts started early, but it seemed to last much longer into the night than predicted. Sarah slept in our room again. We lost power around 10:30am. It came back on for about 10 minutes around 6pm, but a tree on the line caught on fire and blew the transformer (at least that is the jargon the neighbors uses to describe the small explosion). There was good wind, but little rain. Highlights: watching a church service online before the power went out, finishing a number of books, talking to family, going out in the evening to watch the ocean

Monday- Clean up day! Yard work took over most of the day and Dave grilled chicken for lunch. We
moved essential food to a cooler. The church had power, so we enjoyed a “date” with coke, popcorn, a milky way, and a movie on his computer. Sarah had a cold bath and clearly declared herself to not be a fan. Highlights: our date, fresh fajitas, an early morning walk around the neighborhood

Tuesday- Back to life, power or no power (ahem, and we still had no power). Dave went to work and
I met a friend at the playground with Sarah. We had a picnic in the park with several church staff
for lunch. The afternoon/evening brought the emotional job of cleaning out the fridge and freezers.
Thankfully, we weren’t storing too much. I think this job might break my heart in any situation. So
much time and preparation! We stored much of what survived in the church kitchen. Dave and I took
icy showers. Highlights: spending time with church folks, hot dogs for dinner, seeing life go on in the community since most people had power, the mysterious camping sun shower that appeared on our
back porch table (this last one tops the list!)

Wednesday- I went to town with Dave to use a Dunkin Donuts gift card for a special breakfast.  When I got home I made one trip upstairs to put Sarah down for her nap. I went back to the car for the second load and the neighbors started shouting. Dave pulled in the driveway at the same time to bring my phone, which I had left at church, and got to experience the good news first hand. WE HAD POWER! Once the fridge/feezer were gone we weren't too inconvenienced by the outage, but we agreed that it was a long 70.5 hours. The rest of the day was spent running the dishwasher, washing clothes, taking hot showers, putting ice in our water, and moving food back to our now sparkling fridge. Highlight: POWER

Our own little burning bush