The Night the Lights Went Out In Seaford…

Lights and cable flickered all day long.  My heart was pretty much in my chest for the brunt the day as well, especially during the moments when the wind picked up and the power would flash out.  Miraculously, each time the power would flicker off, about 10 times in total, the power kept coming back on. We were holding steady and I even got my blog posts written and pre-scheduled though Sunday (almost 7 days worth).

We had breakfast, lunch and dinner all a long worrying for the worst to come.  Watching the trees sway back and forth all the while.  The rain really wasn’t all that heavy, but oh the winds were just awful.

Then, the power went off and didn’t come back.  It was dark and silent, but again we breathed a sigh of relief, when the power returned after about five minutes.  But we still knew, we were most likely on borrowed time.  This was at 6:45 pm on Monday, Oct. 29th.  We were finally all cleaned up from dinner and then it happened at exactly 7:10 pm, we lost power and it never did return that night.  The lights went out in Georgia or should I say Seaford, Long Island!!!

We set in the dark with candlelight listening to the wind as it picked up to almost 100 mph right outside our very window.  Nothing could be done and I felt truly helpless and now I knew what Dorothy must have felt like when that Twister did it’s damage in The Wizard of Oz!!  Thank god though, my girls were truly unfazed and thought it was a party yelling, “We don’t have power!”  I was just happy for small favors that they were too little to truly understand or be scared at this point.

But me on the other hand, was unnerved and petrified.  I tried for my kids’ sake to act like it truly wasn’t a big deal.  All the while, we listened to the radio, to hear any sort of updates.  It felt bizarre to be honest, because the last time I actually listened to the local radio in my house, I was a teenager and would listen to pop and rock music in my bedroom to have some alone and quiet time.

The reports we heard were sounding more and more from the scenes out of a blockbuster movie though, where the world was coming to an end and Armageddon was about to occur.

Listening with our ears, but unable to actually see it with our own eyes, we heard all about the winds, the high tides that brought water onto streets, the houses that still had electricity and water rushing into them that started house fires and even trapped these folks in their homes.  Every other street had downed trees and electrical wires, too.

And so this went on all through the night.  I went to bed finally in the pitch black dark.  My kids fell asleep hours before us, but once I fell asleep my kids of course took turns through the night crying out of disorientation, because we didn’t even have a nightlight.  I finally had them sleep with a flashlight on that died as daylight returned.

Finally, it was Tuesday morning and daylight creeped back in, but still no power.  We made breakfast on the stovetop by lighting the burner.  We didn’t even have cell phone reception and it didn’t matter, because my charge was at 40% and declining fast.  And I am the moron that never even bothered to buy a car charger, because when would I need that?

Well, off to Best Buy to hope to god to that I’d find one once the dust cleared that morning.  My parents watched my kids, while Kevin and I drove with no traffic signals, with tons of trees and electrical power lines down.  Finally got to Best Buy and actually found one, lone Rocket-fish I-Phone charger and purchased it by way of debit card (they only took cash or debit, no credit, while running on a generator).  Drove around town looking for more batteries and flashlights to stockpile (Ace had a large glow sticks each for $8.00, yeah a real bargain–can you sense my sarcasm?), while charging the phone.  And now with that I was able to see my e-mails and Facebook messages pouring in, but could not respond to them.  3G service was available for texts and calls, but Internet was spotty at best.

On a side note to that, thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those that messaged, wrote on my wall, thought of us and commented/shared my blogs that were pre-scheduled.  I cannot say that enough and tell you how much I cried when I saw the outpouring of love and care for my family and I.  I am truly blessed to have found a wonderful bunch of people through my online groups of writers, Mommy friends from both of my pregnancies and of course my close friends and family.

As I write this, I am still without electricity, heat and hot water, but finally have cell/internet service on my I-Phone.   It might be only a small gesture, but man when I was able to send a message out to the real world, I felt like a million bucks!!  We ate dinner (Chinese Food from the one lone food place open for business) by candle light, watched a video on Kevin’s laptop (he has work today and will re-charge it there) and slept by glow sticks ($1 for a package of eight at Party City) last night.  Finally awoke to some sunshine on Wednesday morning (Halloween), but still no power!

Two days, almost 48 hours and still nothing (no electricity, heat or hot water).  I have not showered and am sitting here wearing layers (a tank top, thermal shirt, sweat shirt and my North Face coat, too), jeans and my Uggs boots, while I type my blog hoping that I can upload this one soon.  It is currently 54 degrees here, but with no heat it feels about 30 degrees with the chill in the air in my own home!!

By the way, I never realized how much I relied on technology and the Internet alone.  From my writing and blogging, that I have not been able to do for fear that my computer will die and won’t be able to be re-charged.  By the way, this is the first article that I wrote since the lights went out two days earlier!!  To my July and November DDC (Due Date Club) friends from both of my pregnancies, as well as my writing community friends (Hubpages and Blogging friends, too) that I have not been able to communicate with, too.  And even my friends and family that I have been unable to talk with, because of this, I truly have felt like I am living in a bubble.  Technology seems to rule and can’t escape it for all of my daily needs, but Sandy took all of it!!

I am thankful though that we were pretty fortunate with no real property damage and no harm or injury to my immediate family.  We were the lucky ones from Sandy for all intents and purposes, but have to be honest and tell you that I am not feeling particularly lucky with no power or heat.  Hate to sound like Debbie Downer, but fearing that the estimate of 7-10 days with no power from LIPA could be a reality and thinking I may very well go out of my mind!!  Hoping and praying that this will not be the case.  If you are reading this, then I did finally get my power back and a simple and collective Hallelujah is all I have left to say here right now!!  If not I may have truly gone right out of my mind!!!

Side Note:   This was written on Halloween and I had now signed off to take my kids Trick-or-Treating to have some semblance of a normal holiday, while we still could (plus still needed to conserve battery charge on my laptop).  Stay tuned for Halloween update and the end of the power crisis, too in the next installment.  Thank you again to all that sent messages and thoughts our way again!!!

Now I just couldn’t resist, because I love this song and Reba McIntyre, too:

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