The Perfect Storm

There will be no Fiction Friday Post this week. I apologize. It has been a stressful and busy week here, and I just don't have it in me today.
The majority of people won't know since news coverage has been sparse, but here on the Oregon coast we were hit with two huge storms Sunday and Monday. The winds were up to 120 miles an hour, and most of the coast lost power and many lost phone service. Our power was out for 75 hours, and the phones were out for about three days as well (including our cell service). All the roads leading inland were also closed due to the storm because of flooding, or downed trees, so we had no way out either. We finally have power here at our house, but many people in nearby neighborhoods still are without power. Many people suffered a large amount of property damage, and it has just been a surreal experience in many ways.
We were very blessed at our house that the only damage was some downed trees that did not hit our house, and several shingles blowing off of our roof. Sunday night we didn't get much sleep with the wind, and I feel like it was pretty miraculous that there was not more damage to our home. I was awake most of the night listening to the wind, and it was blowing so hard that it literally felt like an earthquake, our whole house shook. The boys spent four nights sleeping in the living room where it is a little warmer than upstairs and we used up our supply of glow sticks so that the boys could have a little light in the room they were sleeping in, and to light the bathroom at night.
We were fairly prepared as far as things go. Not perfectly prepared...for all the flashlights we have, the boys manage to lose them pretty often, and we couldn't find any of them. We have oil lamps, candles, a battery operated radio as well as a wind up radio with a lantern, a batter operated lantern, a push light, and a butane stove burner like they use in catering. Sunday morning we knew there would probably be a power outage, so we filled up our cooler with ice and essentials from the fridge so that we wouldn't have to open the fridge when the power went out. We played games such as Spongebob Monopoly, Life and etc. and we did some Christmas art projects together during the day. It was actually kind of sad when the power went back on (although we were happy to save the food that was thawing in our freezer). We had some great quality family time together for those three days the power was out, and got along better than usual.
It was hard not having phone service to let family know we were okay, and we realized that we needed to be more prepared. Although we were more prepared than many people, there is still a lot we could have done (always have extra TP...ALWAYS...luckily that was just a close call and not a nightmare experience) such as making sure we were caught up on laundry and have adequate gas in the car. After a few days with no gas pumps going you get desperate for fuel. We are going to implement the half tank rule that D's Grandpa always followed rather than letting the car get down to empty before filling up.
Anyhow...I am sure most of you were thinking I was sick and just not posting, but in fact, I had no power, no phone and no Internet...I will try to get back to a regular posting schedule next week, although there is a chance we will lose power again before everything is back to normal.