Ike: the aftermath

Wednesday, schools started on time; except for one middle school. This happened to be the middle school Firstborn really wanted to go to. He had heard rumors that they brought in name-brand junk food for lunch every day. We are not zoned for that school, so he had to go to a different one. Poor Firstborn.

I loaded the kids onto the bus and updated my blog with the story and pictures. Then I ventured out to the grocery store to refill our fridge. It was crowded and crazy. The stock boys were trying to refill the shelves and the shoppers were emptying them as soon as they filled them.

Some shoppers had just gotten power on either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. Others were still waiting and looking for ice and water and cooking fuels.

There were no eggs. None. Not even the crate of broken eggs that everyone rejected. Both in the organic sections and the regular dairy sections, no eggs. So we would go without. No biggie, at least we had other food. The chickens would catch up soon.

I decided to stop at Wendy's for lunch because I was running so late. Wendy's drive through was backed up right in to the grocery store parking lot. Fast food establishments have been doing a booming business since they got power on. I stopped by the grocery store again on Thursday and again the Wendy's was backed up into the grocery store parking lot.

Those businesses who could open up have been making a killing. Those who could not are losing money like crazy.

Everything in our house is coming back to normal. My laundry is almost caught up. I still have a bit of vacuuming to do. It upsets the dog, so I go slowly. Many are still without power though and they usually have to go to work. Our township rec center finally opened up to even non members for showers. They publicized it by sending out an email through the schools. That made me laugh. The people who need the service don't have power let alone email.

Many people are still without phone and Internet as well. I see AT&T trucks everywhere. So it must be their services that are effected. We lost phone because we have digital and it needs a router to operate. We have a battery back up for short power outages, but nothing like this. But once our power came back, Internet and phone both came back too.

So as things calm down here in Ohio, I'll leave you with some pictures of a praying mantis I found sunning on my porch today.