Surviving a Hurricane

One of the things that we never get here in Ohio is hurricanes. That statement used to be true, but no longer. The remnants of Hurricane Ike which plowed into Texas last week made their way north and east and smacked this area on Sunday afternoon with four hours of constant winds, gusting up to 83 miles per hour.

The electric power went out at 1:00 PM Sunday and wasn't restored until 3:00 AM this morning (Wednesday).

The photo above was a big part of my survival kit. It's a glass of Distiller's Edition Oban single malt whisky.

We ate well during the blackout since everything in the freezer and refrigerator thawed and needed to be cooked on the grill. The dogs had a true feast of fish, beef, pork and chicken they don't normally get because there was nothing else to do with it. Ice disappeared from the area almost immediately though I managed to find a bag on Monday. At one time there were close to a million people without power, and estimates are it will be Saturday or Sunday before everyone is re-energized, so food is now scarce in the local area as the stores are having to pitch most of what they had in stock.

Fortunately I had full tank of gasoline in the car but on trips out it was strange to see the advertised prices rising and being changed on the placards, even though there was no power to pump it. One station went up three times on Monday and hadn't pumped a single gallon. A week ago gas was $3.45 a gallon and last night it was $4.35, though a few places were starting to drop the price. I can wait another four or five days before needing more.

The only saving grace was that very cool temperatures followed the hurricane. Had it been hot and humid I'm sure nerves would have frazzled even more than they did.

Enough! There were three really nice wines consumed during the course and we'll get to those soon.