A lot of people had severe weather yesterday, and we were no exception. We didn't have anything traumatic, like so many others did. Just inconvenient. We have a lot to be thankful for.
Our church is currently working on setting up a way to help the people that were affected by the tornado in Moore, OK. When things are finalized, I will let you know what we're doing so you can get involved if you want to. In the mean time, I will tell you our own insignificant story.
Just after dinner yesterday, strong thunderstorms and wind whipped through here. It broke a lot of trees, pushed rainwater into our living room, tore some shingles off our roof and threw a picnic table, wheel barrow and some other things all over the place. And it knocked out the power. Our electricity was just restored today, in the late afternoon. So here is my list of things to do before you lose electricity:
1. Do all the laundry. Who wants to deal with mildewing towels? Whatever you do, don't have towels sitting in the washer waiting to be dried. Especially when it's raining outside. You really should plan for sudden power outages better than that.
2. Run that fully loaded dishwasher. Because dirty dishes start to stink after several hours closed up in the dishwasher.
3. Run the disposal. Not only does food start to stink in the disposal, it also backs up the water. And if the water backs up, it might back up into the dishwasher (which is full of dirty dishes, remember). If the dishwasher door isn't fully closed, all that dirty, smelly water will run out onto your floor. You will notice this is happening when you step in it with your socked feet. Definitely run your disposal before the power goes out.
4. Stock up on plastic plates, plastic cups, plastic silverware, and virtually any plastic item you can think of. Especially if these are items you don't generally have on hand. Boiling all that water to hand wash loads of dishes isn't usually thought of as fun.
5. While you are stocking up, get lots of games and toys that don't require electricity. Your kids may not know what to do with themselves, but they will be very sure they don't want to play with anything non-electric that they already own.
6. Make sure that you have married a handy man who keeps a generator and a lot of camping supplies on hand. That means you will need to start planning for your power outage about 17 or 18 years early, but you will be really glad you did.
I hope you all weathered the storms and have your electricity.
Have a great day!!
