Having lived in Columbus for about 5 years now, I can safely say that this city is the absolute WORST, out of all the other cities I've lived in, at maintaining its electrical grid in good, working order. OK, so maybe Kumasi was worse, but Columbus comes pretty close.
Some of you may remember when Columbus got the remnants of Hurricane Ike a few years ago. I was still single and living with my good friend K at the time. Our power went out for about a week. We did end up getting power back in one half of one outlet, but it really wasn't good for much. It was a trying time. We ate out a lot.
Well, a few days before the 4th of July this year, we had a huge windstorm sweep through the area. Specifically, it was a derecho which is a wind storm made up of straight-line winds that travels over huge geographical area. This one went from the Chicago area all the way to the East Coast. Straight-line winds are the same kind of winds that took off our chimney/roof in the Peach Palace back in the day, for those of you former Peach-palace Pretties who follow this blog. Basically what straight-line winds do, from what I can gather, is tear up a bunch of stuff in random ways and in random places.
For example, there were TONS of trees knocked down all over the city. But the trees weren't up-rooted, they were sheared off right at the base where the trunk meets the grass. Crazy! And the destruction was really random, too. Trees would be knocked over in one yard, but not in the one right next to it. One neighbor's roof would be ripped off, but not the next. Crazy. Power lines were down everywhere, roofs were blown off, and billboards looked like mangled heaps of metal. It was dastardly!
Any way, because Columbus has an extremely poor electrical grid to begin with (our power goes out and comes back on immediately at least twice a week in a normal week), this derecho did a number on the city. There were people without power for up to two-weeks. One-million people in Ohio lost power, and President Obama declared Ohio a Federal Disaster area. The winds got up to 85 mph! It was really neat and scary to watch from the safety of our home while it was happening, but it was really scary. I've never seen wind and rain blow that hard, except on TV when they are covering hurricanes! Oh, and did I mention it happened at the very hottest time of the year? The temperature hit 100+ degrees for multiple days in a row while half the city was without power. Awesome.
It happened in the evening right as the sun was going down, so we really didn't see the extent of the damage until the next morning. It was insane! Ben went ventured out to see if he could help any of our neighbors clean up. He met another guy from our ward doing the same thing, and they wandered around the neighborhood for awhile, helping whoever they could clear their yards and get the bigger tree limbs out of the streets.
At first we didn't lose power and as a result, several of our friends who had lost power and live nearby ended up staying with us or coming to our house to spend the day in the A/C and cook meals. We took on an entire refrigerator's worth of another family's food. They had just gone shopping and stocked up on so many things and we couldn't bear to let them lose it all, especially since they are on a student budget right now!
But, after about 3 days of having power, we suddenly lost ours. It was AWFUL! The friends who were staying with us took their food and left to go to another friend's house who still had power, but we tried to tough it out in our own home the first night. When we lost power, I put tin foil up in all the windows in our house, because that's what they suggest you do to try to keep the sun from heating up your home. It was hilarious, and looked like we were crazy people, but I was determined to keep my house from heating up! It worked for awhile, but that night was horrible. I didn't sleep at all, and by the next morning I was going a little crazy from the heat. I couldn't think straight and was starting to feel slightly delirious and very desperate. I begged Ben to get me out of there! So, we ended up at a friend's house to spend the night too!
Church even got cancelled that week because there was no power and the building had water damage from a leak in the roof caused by the derecho. This is my second power-outage disaster in Columbus, and it really made me see what areas we were prepared in (like powerless cooking, water storage) and what areas we weren't (like keeping cool in the heat). I can't even imagine living through a disaster like the tornadoes in Joplin or Hurricane Katrina. I feel like Columbus becomes a war-zone when we had these comparably small disasters, I can't even imagine what it would be like if the situation was worse!
Any way, we all survived the heat. The power ended up coming back on, and going back to it's normal 2-3 times a week 2-second outages, which I'll take over a 6 day outage any day!
It was an eye-opener for sure. Ben and I will be purchasing a generator as soon as we can afford one. And, we are so grateful to be members of the church. It really is an instant safety net.
Oh, and apparently that particular derecho was so cool that it gets its own Wikipedia page, here.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Stuff Since Vacation
We have been busy bees these last few months!
I've taken on a few more piano students, and currently have 4, and I just got a call from a mom needing lessons for her two daughters, so if our schedules match up that will be 6! I also pawned 2 other students off on a friend of mine, because they were a little more advanced than I'm comfortable teaching and they had crazy schedules that I just couldn't deal with. I am really enjoying teaching! We're going to try to have a little class/group lesson in October for Halloween where the kids can practice playing in front of each other (in a non-scary, non-recital setting) and we'll probably make a Halloween craft or something fun, too. I did this when I was a kid taking lessons, and I really enjoyed them. I've run the idea past a few of my students and they've all been excited about it, so hopefully it will be OK.
I've been working REALLY hard to get my A1C lower, which you can ready all about here. I try not to make this blog too diabetes-heavy, but it's a part of my life, so sometimes it creeps in here.
Church stuff has been awesome and SUPER crazy all at the same time. I finally got released from being an Activity Days leader, which now leaves me with only TWO callings instead of THREE. It is nice, let me tell you. I loved that calling, and had a blast with those chillins, but I was definitely getting burnt out! And Ben is now the Executive Secretary in our ward, which means we are both somehow a lot more busy, so it was just too much! And because we live in a college town and because it's August, that means we've been helping people move in or out about twice a week lately!
Our ward also had a Luau! Our dear friends, The C-Family, pretty much put on the whole thing. The husband is Polynesian and grew up in Hawaii, so he is pretty adept at throwing luaus! Ben and I were involved in several aspects of it, the most exciting of which was that we were both in a dance number! I did a slow hula (you can see what it is supposed to look like, here) with some of the other relief society sisters, and Ben did the Haka with a bunch of the Elder's, the bishopric, and a few little boys. And somehow they managed to convince the Bishop to let them do it with their faces painted and no shirts! Also, our little Activity Days girls did a faster tahitian dance (you can see what that one is supposed to look like here) that they had been working on for MONTHS, and they were so cute! It was awesome. I'll try to get some footage of it to post here, I know someone recorded it. This was probably one of the best ward activities I've ever been to. There were 250 people that came, and the gym was decorated amazingly, there was SO MUCH authentic Hawaiian food, and entertainment. Above all, so many people in the ward were involved in so many different parts of putting this thing on, from food prep, to decorating, to being part of the entertainment, that it was very unifying for our ward, which is something our ward desperately needs right now.
Our friend, K, came to visit too! She was only here for a few short hours, but it was SO good to see her, even if we did have to share her with other people. (K! Next time, come visit and don't tell anyone else you're coming, mwa ha ha ha!)
So, all the summer craziness is starting to wind down (Oh, wait! That reminds me that I need to post about "The Great Summer Blackout of 2012".....another day maybe). We're gearing up for fall & winter, and looking forward to it! Hope all of you are doing well!
I've taken on a few more piano students, and currently have 4, and I just got a call from a mom needing lessons for her two daughters, so if our schedules match up that will be 6! I also pawned 2 other students off on a friend of mine, because they were a little more advanced than I'm comfortable teaching and they had crazy schedules that I just couldn't deal with. I am really enjoying teaching! We're going to try to have a little class/group lesson in October for Halloween where the kids can practice playing in front of each other (in a non-scary, non-recital setting) and we'll probably make a Halloween craft or something fun, too. I did this when I was a kid taking lessons, and I really enjoyed them. I've run the idea past a few of my students and they've all been excited about it, so hopefully it will be OK.
I've been working REALLY hard to get my A1C lower, which you can ready all about here. I try not to make this blog too diabetes-heavy, but it's a part of my life, so sometimes it creeps in here.
Church stuff has been awesome and SUPER crazy all at the same time. I finally got released from being an Activity Days leader, which now leaves me with only TWO callings instead of THREE. It is nice, let me tell you. I loved that calling, and had a blast with those chillins, but I was definitely getting burnt out! And Ben is now the Executive Secretary in our ward, which means we are both somehow a lot more busy, so it was just too much! And because we live in a college town and because it's August, that means we've been helping people move in or out about twice a week lately!
Our ward also had a Luau! Our dear friends, The C-Family, pretty much put on the whole thing. The husband is Polynesian and grew up in Hawaii, so he is pretty adept at throwing luaus! Ben and I were involved in several aspects of it, the most exciting of which was that we were both in a dance number! I did a slow hula (you can see what it is supposed to look like, here) with some of the other relief society sisters, and Ben did the Haka with a bunch of the Elder's, the bishopric, and a few little boys. And somehow they managed to convince the Bishop to let them do it with their faces painted and no shirts! Also, our little Activity Days girls did a faster tahitian dance (you can see what that one is supposed to look like here) that they had been working on for MONTHS, and they were so cute! It was awesome. I'll try to get some footage of it to post here, I know someone recorded it. This was probably one of the best ward activities I've ever been to. There were 250 people that came, and the gym was decorated amazingly, there was SO MUCH authentic Hawaiian food, and entertainment. Above all, so many people in the ward were involved in so many different parts of putting this thing on, from food prep, to decorating, to being part of the entertainment, that it was very unifying for our ward, which is something our ward desperately needs right now.
Our friend, K, came to visit too! She was only here for a few short hours, but it was SO good to see her, even if we did have to share her with other people. (K! Next time, come visit and don't tell anyone else you're coming, mwa ha ha ha!)
So, all the summer craziness is starting to wind down (Oh, wait! That reminds me that I need to post about "The Great Summer Blackout of 2012".....another day maybe). We're gearing up for fall & winter, and looking forward to it! Hope all of you are doing well!
A very late "Vacation: Part 2"
Sheesh, I can't believe I've neglected to write about the rest of our vacation for this long. There's simply no excuse other than I'm easily distracted by shiny objects, reddit, another nerdy shoulder injury that makes it hard to type with my right hand, and an extremely busy couple of months. But still!
So,Vacation Part Two! Here we go! The rest of our vacation was awesome. After leaving our beloved K (sniff sniff) in Our Nation's Capital, we headed down to Ben's family's homestead of High Point, NC via Raleigh, NC. Ben has an old college buddy that lives in Raleigh with his wife, and we met them for dinner so Ben and he could catch up and so we could get the skinny on what it's like to live in the Raleigh/Durham area. We got into Raleigh a few hours before we were supposed to meet up with Ben's friend, so we took the time to drive around a little bit. Mostly, we were trying to find a shoe store because our feet hurt so bad from walking the day before that we each needed to buy some new flip flops to give our tender near-blisters some airing out. We were successful! Also, we realized that it was SUPER easy to get around Raleigh, and that we could basically get from one part of the city to another in about 15 minutes, so it's a lot like Columbus in that sense. I always tell people that everything in Columbus is about 20 minutes from everything else, and it's usually true!
We met Ben's friends for dinner, and they were very nice! And they told us how much they enjoy living in the Raleigh area (they actually live in Carey, I think). They said it's nice because it's close to the beach, close to the mountains, and close to D.C! We had a delightful sup with them, and then left to go to Ben's parents'.
While at Ben's family's house we did a lot of just hanging out, but we did take one day to drive back to the Raleigh/Durham/Research Triangle area with Ben's mom to help us check it out even more. We drove around Durham, which was kind of nice, but reminded me a little too much of Oberlin only bigger. We also drove around the Research Triangle, learned all about the difference between "the Triangle" and "Research Triangle Park" , drove around Carey and the temple, and just had a nice time. We're a fan of the area for sure. I think it would definitely be a great place to live.
Ok, I'm sure we did some other fun stuff, but it's been so long since we actually went, that I can't even remember! Blerg!
I was going to update some more about what has happened in life SINCE vacation, but this post is too long, so I'll write it in another one.
So,Vacation Part Two! Here we go! The rest of our vacation was awesome. After leaving our beloved K (sniff sniff) in Our Nation's Capital, we headed down to Ben's family's homestead of High Point, NC via Raleigh, NC. Ben has an old college buddy that lives in Raleigh with his wife, and we met them for dinner so Ben and he could catch up and so we could get the skinny on what it's like to live in the Raleigh/Durham area. We got into Raleigh a few hours before we were supposed to meet up with Ben's friend, so we took the time to drive around a little bit. Mostly, we were trying to find a shoe store because our feet hurt so bad from walking the day before that we each needed to buy some new flip flops to give our tender near-blisters some airing out. We were successful! Also, we realized that it was SUPER easy to get around Raleigh, and that we could basically get from one part of the city to another in about 15 minutes, so it's a lot like Columbus in that sense. I always tell people that everything in Columbus is about 20 minutes from everything else, and it's usually true!
We met Ben's friends for dinner, and they were very nice! And they told us how much they enjoy living in the Raleigh area (they actually live in Carey, I think). They said it's nice because it's close to the beach, close to the mountains, and close to D.C! We had a delightful sup with them, and then left to go to Ben's parents'.
While at Ben's family's house we did a lot of just hanging out, but we did take one day to drive back to the Raleigh/Durham/Research Triangle area with Ben's mom to help us check it out even more. We drove around Durham, which was kind of nice, but reminded me a little too much of Oberlin only bigger. We also drove around the Research Triangle, learned all about the difference between "the Triangle" and "Research Triangle Park" , drove around Carey and the temple, and just had a nice time. We're a fan of the area for sure. I think it would definitely be a great place to live.
Ok, I'm sure we did some other fun stuff, but it's been so long since we actually went, that I can't even remember! Blerg!
I was going to update some more about what has happened in life SINCE vacation, but this post is too long, so I'll write it in another one.
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