poltr1 | Storm survival stories....

5 days after the storm and some people are still without power. This cleanup is gonna take a while. And we'll have plenty of firewood next year!

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones this time around, since my power came back on early Monday morning. I attribute that to having the wiring to my condo complex underground. I had phone service throughout the entire power outage, and as far as I know, my cable TV didn't go out either.

Needless to say, M was bored without the power, so we went driving around on two separate occasions. I remembered that traffic lights without power are like 4-way stops. M wanted Spaghettios for dinner, so I put some in a saucepan and heated them up on the gas grill outside., That night, I had my battery-operated camping lantern in the house with me while I listened to a battery-operated radio and lit a few candles. I didn't fire up the propane lantern; that's strictly for outdoor use.

mariasmom didn't have power until Wednesday, so her and M spent Monday and Tuesday nights with me.

zorya_thinks reports that she's still without cable TV and high-speed internet. Which has me wondering: how many Time Warner customers in the area have digital phone? Is it working yet? And how many people are going to switch back to regular phone service after this is all done?

It's not likely that a wind storm of this magnitude will come through again, but I feel I should be prepared for it anyway. I'm trying to think what I still need.