I guess right now I am glad I'm not walking down your street.  I might end up on your barbque!

You have my vote.  That sucks.

It reminds me that my earthquake kit is only half finished and I really should get moving on that.

Good grief!

I'm glad I heard from you. I was starting to worry and then I tried calling you today. I know how much it sucks. I hope the electric and water come sooner than expected. Hang in there.

I don't know what's worse, the statistical analysis or the pond water. Yikes.

Oh, that was a bitch, wasn't it?

We were stuck in the dark for about 7 hours until the emergency generators kicked on.  Not bad compared to the rest of Ohio...we got off pretty easy.

Glad you're doing alright...well as good as you can using pond water to flush your toilets.  Any problems with downed trees?  We had 105 trees lose their shit here on campus...no one was hurt, though.

Statistical analysis?...Is that just a fancy name for plain ol' statistics?

~Zoo

I know what you're going through -went through the same thing June 5th! Luckily I had an extra generator I could borrow from work plus at work, since we have a HUGE back up generator, getting ice was no problem either.

Luckily we're too far north and too far west for Ike to have reached us here but my cousin in Houston wasn't so lucky.

SO was I after Isabel!  I hear ya Tova!

We lost power with Hanna, but only for half a day.  And after Isabel, I have a generator now that runs everything (Hot water is gas) except the AC and dryer.

Never again for me!

Oh man, I didn't realise you guys got hit too!  I hope it gets better.  Having been there, in that situation, I know it isn't. Just think of this, the minute the water and power is back, you can take a nice, long bath, dream about it, something to look forward to!  Hang in there T! Sending warm wishes, and watery ones your way.

You are my girl!  How sweet to call and check on me.  Thanks.

Still no water or electric today.

Yeah better get that together..though after a week even our supply stuff is getting low.

The city of Dayton had water, but not my city.  And there wasn't anywhere to get water the first 3 days where we could actually go because of road closures.  It took several days for churches and the red cross to start saying "hey come use our water spouts." 

We are getting some from the church down the road now.  FINALLY after seven days.

I'd love to go to a hotel, but my husband wouldn't do it.  However, as a trade off he went and did three loads of laundry yesterday while I hit the library.  How cool is that?

hahaha...at the peeing outside.  My youngest LOVES to pee outside.  At least we aren't flushing with scummy pond water starting today...but I can still smell it in the house..just an odd whiff every now and then.  Once the electricity comes on, I'm scrubbing the house down with bleach from top to bottom and washing every thing... 

It was a quiz and nope...this is a "Masters Program, and you should expect it to be tough." 

hahaha...that is why there is no electric..because power lines are still above ground here so when the wind blows, trees fall on them.  There is at least one tree down in every yard.  Several roads were closed for a few days because of all the debris.

I wish.  No, see we learn regular old statistics, then write papers in the MLA citation of course, on why a certain data and statistics are good data or bad data and WHY.

I'd rather swallow pond water.

Oh quit braggin. 

hahaha

Here's a funny story.  The only radio station covering this crap, the only station we could get any news thru out was WHIO.  All the other stations just kept playing music like half the state wasn't decimated by the storm....

Anyway, I called up the station today and they put me on the air.  I was cutting up with the host and then I said, "Wanna give a shout out to DP & L.  I know you guys are busy, but if you are down near (said my street name and city) we have no electric, cuz a big tree broke the line."

I was joking, well kinda, calling the electric company is useless because they're busy...but a few hours later the electric guy showed up to look at it, said he heard me on the radio.  hahahaha.  But he didn't come because of it...it was just our turn, but yep that's a big tree (not ours) that broke the line...maybe tomorrow, maybe this week....see ya!

Thanks FS!

What is it with you men and your generators? 

All the generators round here were GONE the first day, to the lucky few who could get to the stores.  And replacements didn't come because they sent most of them south to Texas and LA.

Combining math AND writing?     That sucks...much like my physics lab...5 page paper on velocity, acceleration, and position with their respect to time my ass!

~Zoo

That has got to suck hard!  Not having water or refrigeration, can't do it!  My parents are old school farm community people so I can always go to their house for generator convenience whenever we have lengthy power outages.  We haven't gone a significant amount of time without power since the blackout a few summers back.

Hope things improve big time pronto!

Summer?  Ew.  At least it was nice weather here, no rain and in the 70's.  Coulda been worse if it was hotter...or the middle of winter.

Generators are nice.  We need a really expensive one to run our water pump because its 220.  We are probably going to get one now, or er, someday since we won't see them replenished round here for awhile.  The only problem with generators this time was NO GAS!  As in the few stations that were open ran out the first night after the price jumped up to over $4 a gallon.  (Everyone thought it was price gouging but then when we finally started getting some news we heard about the stock market and bailouts.  ).  But it sounds like your parents are smart and probably have plenty of gas on hand.

Torture ain't it?  My head just wasn't made for statistics....it was made for hats, now HATS are something I might be able to write a twenty page research paper on. 

Update:

WOO HOO!  Finally after seven days we have power!  It came on this morning at 0245.  I heard the big diesel engines of the power trucks at 0215 and got so excited I couldn't sleep.  So I walked around the house, went outside and listened but they were so far away I came back in, and laid back down when BAM!  LET THERE BE LIGHT!  WOOT!

I bounced out of bed, did the dishes, washed a couple loads of clothes, started scrubbing toilets, and didn't stop til 5!  Got back up a few hours later and just now finished the house.

It's clean, it's fresh, it's scummy pond water free.  Yipee

I don't understand why Ohio doesn't put the lines underground.  Several places I've lived have done that with great results.  Not to mention it is more aesthetically pleasing.

I did a lot of thinking about things the last 7 days, and one of those thoughts centered on natural disaster.  We have volunteer firemen, and citizen police, why not have volunteer infrastructure support?  Why not train volunteers in the area of electricity (and other public utilities) and basic line repair and other services vital to our communities?

I asked the electric guy outside where he came from (lots of people from out of state came to help our electric company).  He's from Indiana and his crew mate from N.C. and this is their "on the job training."  They were just hired before coming here with no experience.

Now why import a guy from NC who is just now getting training in this area when we have able bodied people right here?  And if I was the electric company, I'd much rather look to volunteers than PAY all the crazy over time and people from other states to come here.

I'd offer classes to people who are interested, set up a neighborhood watch kinda thing, where people can keep an eye on the lines, and give a holler when trees need cut back (something that doesn't get done unless citizens call in anyway.)  Then train them once, twice a year in the basics of electricity (it ain't rocket science, I understand it pretty well, heh) and when things go nuts, BAM, a volunteer workforce who has a vested interest in getting things moving again. 

Send an experienced crew chief out with a bunch of volunteer labor.