Irene was the first real hurricane I've experienced living at the coast. We've had a tropical storm almost every year I've lived down here, but not a real hurricane. As I mentioned in my last post, we planed to stay with Jackie for the weekend after our appointments on Friday. She actually got a lot of wind damage--4 trees downed and a lot of limbs and tree debris in the yard. We came home Sunday to see what was going on. I had seen on Facebook that several Swansboro people had power, so I wasn't too worried about not having power.
I was so wrong.
A lot of people have power through Jones-Onslow Electric Corporation. We do not. I had a fit over this when we hooked up our electricity, because Progress-Energy wanted to charge me $250 for hookup--no matter that I had power before through other companies, that they were willing to do a letter of credit, nothing. It would have been free through JOEC. When we got home, the worst damage was a chunk of siding from the back of the house. However, we were without power. We decided to go to Lowes and pick up flashlights and charcoal and grill out. When we got back, I read on Facebook that people I knew on both the Swansboro and Belgrade ends of our road were projected to be without power until THURSDAY. When I told Jimmy, he said, "Pregnant women shouldn't be without power. You've been wanting to go see your family, go do that until the power's back on. I'll go stay with Chris." We wound up spending Sunday night in a hotel and packed up Monday to go our separate ways.
What ensued over the next 48 hours was the quickest trip back to visit family EVER. I left at 12 Monday and was back here by 3 on Wednesday. We did get power back on Tuesday and I had to get my Nplate shot on Wednesday. If we didn't have power, I would have begged Dr. M to let me just get my shot at Duke instead of going all the way home. But when we had power, there wasn't any reason to do a 6 hour round trip to Duke in the middle of the week, then drive right back home Friday. My next visit will be much better planned! But it was good because I got to spend time with both parents and Stephen and Patrick. Stephen suggested this really great vegan restaurant for lunch on Tuesday (we were in Charlotte because Nanny and Mom closed on the house) and the food was so good. The restaurant also focused on raw foods, so it was a perfect meal for sitting outside on a summer day...not too heavy and not hot.
What ensued over the next 48 hours was the quickest trip back to visit family EVER. I left at 12 Monday and was back here by 3 on Wednesday. We did get power back on Tuesday and I had to get my Nplate shot on Wednesday. If we didn't have power, I would have begged Dr. M to let me just get my shot at Duke instead of going all the way home. But when we had power, there wasn't any reason to do a 6 hour round trip to Duke in the middle of the week, then drive right back home Friday. My next visit will be much better planned! But it was good because I got to spend time with both parents and Stephen and Patrick. Stephen suggested this really great vegan restaurant for lunch on Tuesday (we were in Charlotte because Nanny and Mom closed on the house) and the food was so good. The restaurant also focused on raw foods, so it was a perfect meal for sitting outside on a summer day...not too heavy and not hot.
No comments:
Post a Comment