Married Life W5: Hurricane Ian
Lazy days at home during Hurricane Ian
Week five of marriage we got a hurricane.
We found out Monday that we were in the line of fire for Hurricane Ian. Schools and businesses started closing and the grocery store panic had begun. If you’re not from Florida then you’ve probably never seen how bare the groceries stores get during hurricane prep but it is wild. I cheated the system, skipped the big chain groceries and went to Aldi for water, soup, and peanut butter & jelly supplies. We decided to stick it out at home. Despite being technically in a mandatory evacuation zone we agreed that we felt like our home was the safest place for us.
Both of our offices closed for Wednesday & Thursday so we spent Monday & Tuesday working and getting ready with the basics (full tanks of gas, etc) knowing once we were inside we’d need to be prepared to stay there for the hurricane and maybe a few days after depending on the water. I downloaded a mountain of ebooks because I was 6 books behind schedule on my 200 book goal for the year and this seemed like a good time to try’n make up some lost ground. We had a few puzzles on hand. Thanks to Instagram I even recruited my friends help coming up with a list of shows we should catch up. Tuesday afternoon Blake was working from home and I was at the office and I finally thought to call and ask if he wanted to get some real dinner supplies. If we didn’t lose power I realized I didn’t actually want to eat peanut butter and jelly for five days.
The hurricane turned, hitting land well below Tampa and sparing us beyond rain and wind. We do know a lot of people in the Tampa area (including most of Blake’s family) who lost power but we did not. It completely missed us. It was sobering to see the damage that happened in Ft. Myers and Sarasota County as well as several islands that may never be the same - it was almost us. I’m grateful for our safety and to have an undamaged home but my heart goes out to so many who were less fortunate.
The slower pace midweek was a nice treat and we worked to make the most of us. We took walks with the dog, played card games with friends, watched way too much TV while eating too many snacks. Being trapped inside with your favorite person isn’t so bad but I’ll admit we were pretty happy to be out by Thursday. On Thursday we drove around to see how our city had fared and found an open sports bar. We were thrilled to be out and about but could tell their staff was really overwhelmed so we left a big tip and a nice note…don’t we all need a little extra kindness in crisis?
I hope you’ll join us is praying for and sending help to SW Florida - it’s been so sweet to see so many states send lineman and supplies. May we all be #FloridaStrong for them.
