Animals can sense trouble. Unfortunately people are also animals- which means once I started to worry, the kids started to freak the f#@! out. Nobody is sleeping, meals involve sitting quietly near a table while we all pick at food and games involve a million interruptions for "what was that noise?" The upside is if I tell them to do something, they rush about doing it like their lives depend on it.
As refreshing as it was to use the shower and have working lights for a day, coming home again was a disaster.
For starters, the old man next door was camped on my front porch with a rifle. Apparently, he had decided that my house was safer on account of the huge glass windows he has on every wall of his. <Insert long rant about impending looters> Pointing out that taking over my house was a lot like looting seemed to be the route to go. After a couple hours of cautious reasoning with him he moved on. I also gave him a case of beer and helped him into the abandoned home next door. Water is a crisis situation right now. Before coming back home, I moved some storage bins into the back of my car and filled them with the hose. We moved the van into the garage and we've been walking to the car and getting it as needed at this point but I'm afraid to let anybody know we have it there.
This weekend left me wondering why I never bothered meet my neighbors. I live by some neat people, who I'm sure wouldn't seem terrifying if there wasn't this looming truth that we are suddenly competing for the same resources. It's been informal so far, but we've had a few small meetings just discussing pooling together to help each other out. I volunteered my back yard as a giant garden- a large area right by a stream with no trees to block the light. I have never felt so sore in my life from digging up sod and trying to till rocky dirt. So far, I think we will all be able to eat all the summer squash and tomatoes we want by mid-summer. I am going to feel like such an idiot when the power comes back on. At least I will be an idiot with a lot of pasta sauce. As nervous as I am about them, I'm glad the people living right here seem to be coping well. We started to drive to downtown and saw people looting the Target Saturday morning. It took less than two days for some people to go crazy, I am trying not to think about what is going on down there today, three days later.
It was my daughter's birthday today. I feel terrible that she didn't get a cake. All of our ice cream melted. The chest freezer smells- while digging the garden I actually dug a hole and started to bury some old food so we wouldn't have to deal with it. I wish I could take her out somewhere, go to the movies or just let her pick out a new toy at the store... but I don't think there are any safe stores right now. I wanted to lie to her about the date and hope we will wake up with power tomorrow, but what if we don't?
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