If you saw Friday's post, you know that we were boarded up and preparing for Hurricane Matthew's best. Well, his best for Charleston was something along the lines of a Cat 1 hurricane. Truthfully, I haven't done the research to see how much devastation Charleston will be dealing with, but I saw some photos of downtown where water was definitely where it shouldn't have been. When we went out for dinner on Sunday night, we saw the tree that had taken our power out, still across 1/2 the road. It was more than just a rain storm, but not too bad, all things considered.
Let's get to the hurricane review!
It kinda felt like a really long weekend. Matthew became more than a blip on a radar on Tuesday around lunch. By 3pm, the SC Governor had declared a state of emergency for SC. Soon after that, county offices and schools announced they'd be closed for the rest of the week. That still seems a little knee-jerk to me, but I'm not the governor for a reason. For me, this meant that I'd be teleworking for the rest of the week, as long as I had power. Teh German went into work on Wednesday, but left after lunchtime and his company was closed for the rest of the week as well.
Wednesday
Before Teh German left for work, he and I came up with a list of items that I could tackle while he was working. Unplugging things, bringing the outside stuff inside the garage, laundry, charging all the batteries for the power tools, finding batteries/flashlights, and doing anything that required electricity.
I accomplished all these things. When Teh German came home, he said to me, "Thanks for bringing everything inside. Who helped you?" I was elated and instantly disappointed. Elated that he noticed my hard work. Disappointed that obviously I couldn't have done all that myself. Mostly, he meant moving the patio table inside on my own, but still. My girl power heart weeped a little.
Teh Megan: Why did someone have to help me?
Teh German: Well, how did you get the table inside? It's heavy.
Teh Megan: I used the wagon and just flipped the table upside down on top of the wagon and wheeled it around and flipped it up on the trailer. But I appreciate all the faith you have in me.
Teh German: You know what I meant!
I did know, but for me, someone who preaches about rhetoric and sexism and choosing your words to mean what you say, it didn't sit well. It hurt my feelings a little that I'd be so weak as to not be able to accomplish such a menial task like moving the table. 1- I could have asked a neighbor for help. 2- I could have done exactly what I did and used my resources wisely. Being asked who helped me felt demeaning to me.
After that, Teh German changed into some manual labor clothes and headed outside where the street boarding-up party was getting started. Mr. Golfer came over and helped Teh German put up our boards. While they were working on our house, I noticed that our neighbor was rolling out his boards on his wheelchair to his backyard. YALL. I could not even. My brain wrinkled. I practically stormed over to his house and told him to stop and to let the able-bodied do the work. He didn't like it at first, but as some of you might be aware, I'm very persistent. This was one of those times that I was going to get my way. He agreed, realizing 2 things. 1- I wasn't going to let him keep doing what he was doing. 2- He would never have finished on his own. He would have been putting up boards through the night on Thursday and still on Friday when the rain started.
Of course, Teh German and Mr. Golfer and I took care of Neighbor's boards. We also helped the neighbors 2 houses down from us. We gathered quite an effective team. Finally, it was getting dark and we were hungry. Mr. Golfer headed home, but the neighbors 2 doors down and Teh German and I agreed to go out for Mexican. It was nice to meet new people and hang out. They seem to be our age and have similar senses of humor, which is good for Teh German and I since we have very broad funny bones.
After dinner, we made a pit stop at Publix to pick up $50 worth of things: 1 case of water ($4), 3 gallons jugs of water ($0.89 each), 1 gallon of milk ($4), and the rest was beer. #priorities. With beverages secured, we headed home. It didn't take long for us to be ready for bed.
Thursday
Teh German had his alarm set for 0615 because he is el diablo. Actually, the opposite of that. He was getting up early to continue the boarding-up party. He had his coffee and headed over to Mr. Golfer's house to assist with boards. After Mr. Golfer's house, they worked their way down the street. Our across the street neighbor had asked for help with his boards, so they helped him. His neighbor needed help because her husband is deployed and she's pregnant and home with 2 small children, oh yeah and she's from Guam. Then, her neighbor needed help (well ladders). The group hadn't expected to do the middle house, so they grumbled a little bit until I explained the situation. They wouldn't let a solo mom not have boards on her windows. Just like I wasn't going to let her stay in Charleston if we evacuated.
When I thought we were leaving on Wednesday, I had invited her to bring the kids and come to Teh Dad's with us. I informed Teh Dad after, knowing that he'd be ok with it. Turns out we didn't leave, so I wanted to make sure that they were taken care of just like we were taking care of ourselves.
After my morning meetings, I headed over to Roux's Humom's house and dropped off Meri and Phil for play time. Then I headed to Walmart, to brave whatever I would find. I needed plastic containers for the boxes Teh Dad had sent home with us the last few times we've been in NC and I figured I could go through those things during a weekend holed up inside (HA! Jokes on me). I also has some items to get from the food section that had been on my list so I also perused the non-perishables that were left.
Apparently, people REALLY love chips during hurricanes. Also bread and toilet paper and pop tarts (except for the smores flavor, to my benefit).
Despite what I figured would be a very long wait to check out, it took an average amount of time. I wanted to tell the idiots that were standing in the really long line that they were in line for self check out, but nahhhhhh. After Walmart, I headed to Publix to pick up a rotisserie chicken since I didn't want to wait at Walmart for another 45 minutes for theirs to be done.
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| Pizza delivery dog has judgy eyes. |
When I got home, I unloaded the car, ate the sandwich I had picked up, and focused on work for a bit. Eventually, I picked the chicken from the bone and headed out to check on the workers and pick up the beasts.
Pizza showed up in the afternoon for the workers. Beer steadily flowed throughout the day. I helped put up some boards, but I was also the beer wench when necessary. When someone would get grouchy, I'd ask if they needed a beer. Problem solved. I had worked on laundry throughout the day to make sure that we wouldn't be going naked on Monday. As the boarding party finished for the evening, I headed inside to make dinner. I invited Mr. Golfer and Roux's Humom (who are married) over for dinner. They said they needed to feed his mom and I sent them with leftovers from Wednesday's lunch to feed her.
I made chicken and gnocchi soup for dinner and it was delicious. The men were tired from boarding all day, so after dinner, Mr. Golfer and Roux's Humom left and we were in bed shortly after cleaning up.
Friday
We kinda slept in on Friday. Teh German got a call from the neighbor asking him to help board up his daughter's house down the street. Fortunately, he only wanted the bottom done. His daughter was away on a trip.
I reassured Teh MD-AR and Teh WJL that we weren't going to float away in the morning, which was also an excuse to get dog selfies.
At some point, the final boards were put up on the upstairs portion of our house, which hadn't been done at first. I worked some and attended meetings as necessary. Teh German came home for lunch and we had sammiches. I did bring Phil and Meri over to Roux's house for some run time so Meri's batteries wouldn't completely recharge before the storm started. I also brought along the pup-treats I'd gotten for the pups.
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| Roux got one too, but I didn't get his picture. |
In the afternoon, the rain started. Mr. Golfer and Roux's Humom had invited us over for dinner. I finished up some work stuff and Teh German came in and showered, the boarding-up party complete. We watched a few episodes of HIMYM and then we headed over for dinner around 7. Actually, we started to head over for dinner and I noticed that there was water coming from the freezer, so I had a crisis and had to clean up the water.
I had filled a few gallon and quart sized ziplock bags halfway with water to serve as ice packs in case we lost power. I had failed to properly put them in the freezer so they were leaking. After getting that disaster mitigated and cleaned up, we headed down the street. After delicious spaghetti (fitting dinner considering all the "spaghetti" models for Hurricane Matthew's predicted path) dinner, we socialized for a bit, then headed back home. The rain was really coming down by this point and we had zero guilt for driving less than a quarter of a mile down the street for dinner.
When we got home, I stood out in the rain with the beasts praying they would go business. Phil peed, but that was it. This meant that Meri was on strike because of the rain, which meant we had to worry about her going business in the house. Grand. After drying everyone off, we plugged in all the batteries to charge and headed to bed. Teh German had to get up for something and I asked him to unplug the Hue lights while he was downstairs. H came back upstairs and we went to bed, prepared as much as we could for whatever would happen through the night.
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| This was not proper business attire for the beasts. |
Around 11:30, the power flickered. I had failed to unplug the Hue lights in our room, so we were rudely awakened to some bright ass lights. I turned the lights off with the app and then we unplugged the lights in our room. Teh German then said that the lights downstairs were on and I told him I'd turned them off. He then explained to me that he hadn't actually unplugged the lights, but unplugged the
bridge. So not only were the lights on, the bridge wasn't accessible for me to do anything with the lights. I was furious.
I had asked him to unplug the lights in case the power surged. Also, I was confused. Why would he unplug the bridge and not the lights? There was NO logic there for me. He refused to get up and unplug the lights and I stewed for several minutes and finally got too pissed off and went downstairs and unplugged the lights myself. When I came back to bed I grouchily said something to the effect of the power surging and killing $1000 worth of lights was completely unacceptable. Really the unacceptable part to me was that he hadn't listened to me in the first place, which would have meant the entire situation wouldn't have been an issue. #RAGE
It was a miracle I was able to fall back asleep, but I did. Throughout the night, I woke up to the sound of the wind and rain. Also, I was still pissed so my sleeps were crap. I should have medicated, but didn't because I didn't want to get back out of bed. Stupid.
Saturday
We woke up to no power on Saturday morning. The boards made it nice and dark in our room, but with no power, there was no AC so it was hot. I got up and fed the dogs and donned a poncho and stood out in the rain with them while they went business. No poops, but both peed. I gave up and we all came back inside and dried off. I delivered a Kind bar to Teh German for breakfast in bed and I had a poptart. We couldn't get a good signal to check social media and with no power, there was no wifi. Eventually, we got up and meandered downstairs.
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First we took a selfie. On my phone you can actually see teeth.
This shows you how effective the boards are at blocking light and
how stupid androids are for not having the selfie flash screen like apple does. |
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My dive light provided the perfect amount of light.
Why we didn't take a selfie after I turned the light on baffles me too. |
Teh German was playing his game on his phone and I was reading on my Kindle. I could tell Teh German was getting restless, so I suggested he do a puzzle on his ipad. He was still restless doing the puzzle on his ipad and I was worried about killing my battery so early into not having power, so I suggested we do an actual puzzle. We had purchased puzzles earlier this year and had never done them, so this was the perfect time!
I pulled out a piece of wood that Teh German used as a TV stand when he lived at The Closet and put it on the ottoman in the living room. We sorted out edge pieces and got them together by the light coming from the patio door, which was only boarded up on the top so Meri and Phil could still go out.
It was the agreement we had made after I told Teh German that I refused to leash 2 dogs, walk through the garage, deal with the gate, let them go business, and go back through all those steps just because he wanted to board up the back door. No. He could board up the top of the door, I would deal with ducking under it and not deal with the danger of the gate or hassle of the garage door. I understood WHY he wanted to board it up, but it wasn't logical with the dogs. I recently learned that German logic is very black/white and added variables complicate things in their brains... and by their I mean MY German's brain.
By lunch time, the rain had stopped. The wind was still kickin' though. Teh German was going stir crazy, so we decided to take Phil and Meri on a trek down the street. This also meant we could do some damage assessment. We ran into the neighbors 2 doors down who were also walking their dogs (the pizza delivery dog and the street laying dog).
After our walk, we chatted at our driveway while the dogs got pettins until Phil's legs were shaky. Then we took the beasts inside and moved the puzzle to the dining room table. We did puzzle for a while until we were hungry. Teh German pulled out the grill and I put leftover soup in a pan and we heated it up on the grill burner. Perfecto.
After dinner, we were invited over to Roux's house since they had a generator running and we could also charge whatever we needed. Teh German and I were having some serious grumbles towards each other and he stayed home while I went to socialize with the dogs. If Teh German would have came, we probably would have played a game, but he didn't and Mr. Golfer fell asleep, so Roux's Humom and I chatted for a few hours and then I headed back home with the pups.
When I got home, we still weren't speaking to each other, so I got dog breakfast ready and headed upstairs with my flashlight to get ready for bed. I opened the windows, despite the boards, and I exchanged the comforter for a quilt on our bed so we wouldn't be as hot. I medicated and grabbed the handy dandy battery pack to charge our phones overnight. I broke the silence to tell to Teh German to hand me his charger and plugged in his phone for him because I'm such a nice person. Otherwise, he would have woken up to a dead battery.
With nothing left to do, we passed out.
Sunday
We woke up Sunday to still no power. Teh German had set his alarm to go off at 0615 again, because el diablo, and again, the opposite. Sunday was the boarding-
down/de-boarding party. Our neighbor came over and helped Timo remove the bottom boards around our house and they continued the party around the neighborhood. I stayed in bed until Teh German called me to ask if we had power. I rolled over and checked the light on the power strip beside the bed, and we did, in fact, have power. Nonetheless, I stayed inside, out of the way, doing puzzle and being not-people-y. To include being a crappy friend and ignoring Teh MD-AR's group text about starting the Army 10-miler.
Teh German came in around 1030 and was hungry, so he heated up soup leftovers. After eating, he headed back out to continue de-boarding with the street gang. I did puzzle for a while. Then I got motivated and started the dryer, cooked lentil soup, and showered. About 5 minutes after my shower, the power flickered a few times and went back out. Good timing, Megan.
I headed out to check on the de-boarding party and helped remove lower level boards from one house. I also relocated all the outside things to their place. I did have some help this time with the patio table and chairs since neighbors were roaming the streets and it was easy to ask for help. Especially since the de-boarders were using our wagon. Right before our top boards were removed, I was moving the grill to the backyard and stubbed my toe on the foot. But this wasn't just an ouch, my toe! This was a hiss, cry, cuss stub my toe. I looked at my foot and knew that if I took off my shoe, my toe would be bleeding. It hurt too bad not to be bleeding.
I was right. It was definitely bleeding. I had ripped the nail back.
I wiped it off, put a band-aid over it, put my sock and shoe back on and limped back to work. The toe was 1 of 2 disasters to strike because of Hurricane Matthew. This is the other:
In fact, that disaster happened TWICE. Once again after I was about to hang it on the front porch. So that poor plant go re-potted twice in one day and if it doesn't die, I'll be impressed.
After getting everything in it's place outside, I headed inside to be by myself and do puzzle. Teh Dad called and despite not wanting to answer it, I knew he'd just call back if I didn't, I answered. Our conversation got off to a rocky start (I was still bitter about a conversation we'd had on Wednesday when Teh Dad said I wouldn't understand something because I'm not a man) but after I exploded on him after he told me again I couldn't understand something because I'm not a man. Things got better. I even went so far as to tell him that to tell me to "calm down" would be more productive than saying to me, "you wouldn't understand because you're not a man." Of all the people to say something like that to, I should be the last person what with my very strong views on gender roles.
We did talk through some of my issues with Teh German and his grouchiness. That was helpful. I accomplished quite a bit of puzzle while we chatted. When Teh German finally came home, we ended the call. I had told Teh German that we were going out for dinner, despite having food available to eat in the house. I was thinking that getting out would help the situation.
While he showered, I called several places to make sure they were open before I offered them up as suggestions to Teh German. We first tried Buffalo Wild Wings, but I had forgotten sports bar + Sunday football. There were no tables available and the 2 seats we found at the bar had been vacated by people who had just went outside to smoke. Ugh. We ended up leaving and going to Wild Wing Cafe, where we encountered the same problem. We got lucky and were able to get a table outside immediately. Service was pretty slow and check delivery slow as well.
There was some drama when a guy said, "bless you," to Teh German after he sneezed and since Teh German didn't hear him (which I knew was the case because he wasn't hearing me speak either), he started talking shit. Of course, I wouldn't let it go and I said he couldn't hear him. He got an attitude and his friend was trying to get us to stop. After I was a smart ass and said thank you, I started to ignore him because I knew that I'd run my mouth more if I listened to his retort.
Finally, I was freezing because now I've completely lost my acclimation for the cold. It was 70 degrees outside and I was in jeans and a long sleeve shirt and I was shivering. Granted, hurricane breezes were still blowing a bit, but 70 used to be shorts/short sleeves weather. I'm ruined.
We came home and prepped dog breakfast and headed straight to bed. Teh German was twitchy, so I offered to rub his legs since they were sore and he refused. I was annoyed, so I put a pillow between us so his twitches wouldn't keep me awake and finally fell asleep. I woke up a few hours later with my toe absolutely throbbing. Not willing to deal with it anymore, I got up, peed, took a tramadol, put in a set of earplugs, and crashed.
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| Fall = blankies! |
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And that's the story of how we survived the weekend of Hurricane Matthew.
Honestly, I expected more quiet time. I'm glad that we didn't have any damage. We have some loose vinyl siding, but that's it. We had zero issues getting our boards up, whereas other houses had to have holes drilled because they didn't fit or because there weren't holes at all. We also had all the boards we needed, where some people didn't have boards at all or didn't have the correct boards for certain windows.
The prep tool I was most glad to have was the battery pack I had gotten for Disneyland. We were able to use our phones as normal and still not have to deal with dead batteries.
The best thing about this weekend was that we got to meet most of our neighbors. We learned that we live near some pretty awesome people and we are all willing to help each other out. I was pretty sure that when our neighbor across the street came home and noticed the boards already off his windows, he almost cried. He immediately came over and thanked me. I had to tell him that it was all Timo. He still thanked me for making sure his house was taken care of while he had been on his shift at the hospital for several days. He spent the rest of the afternoon with the de-boarding party repaying the kindness on other's homes. See? Awesome neighbors.
It was an optional telework day for our office today. Of course, I'm at home. I wasn't prepared to deal with whatever issues there were at the office when I could just stay home and be with the dogs for an extra day.
In extra good news, the tropical storm that was behind Matthew dissipated and is no longer a threat. Additional extra good news, we were so tired last night that staying up for the debate wasn't even.. up for debate, HA! I did see some Twitter commentary and saw the memes on FB.
I will say up front that I haven't watched the debate, but I agree that if you support the way some women speak "like the men" (Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman, etc), then you can't judge the way Trump speaks. We all know where I stand on sexual assault, but you can't judge one and ignore the other. That said, Amy Schumer pushes my boundaries too far and she makes me uncomfortable, as does many of the things that Donald Trump says.
I've spent the last year trying to clean up my speech, in regards to gender-speak. You won't hear me tell you to "man up" anymore. Just like you won't hear me say you do anything "like a girl." Also, adults are men and women, not boys and girls and often I have to correct myself on this. I try my best to be aware of my PMS symptoms so I can't blame my behaviors on chemical imbalances in my body, no matter how true they maybe, they should never be an excuse for poor behavior. That said, I will get ragey when my dad says to me, "You'll never understand because you're not a man." Excuse me? I may never
experience something because I'm not a man, but that doesn't mean I can't empathize or sympathize or
understand. Gender limitations are exactly what you let them or don't let them be.
Whew, that was off-topic, my bad. Anyways. The weekend wasn't what I expected and I need a weekend to recover from the weekend. Maybe next weekend?
Happy middle of October, Gentle Readers!
Also, tomorrow is books day! Don't forget!
Final last thing, I promise.
Happy Birthday to Teh Sister! I made a public announcement at her wedding at she isn't adopted, so now I have to act good-sisterly. I did give her a card when we saw her in NC last weekend, so I didn't forget, which is a huge first step. Since they were moving, I wasn't sure what to get her, but I'm sure she'll have some ideas for me in the near future.
