What's on your mind?

When a couple is married, they usually have a set dollar amount that one can spend without having to discuss it between themselves.


My amount is about $35.00.




Evidently, my wife's amount is in the neighborhood of $1,765.35.

MFP has been sold and will shortly be under new management.

The forums could conceivably go away.

I'm trying not to get too close to the new recruits.

It's like in Vietnam, you don't even want to know the names of the replacements, because odds are, their days and numbered and you want to avoid the emotional pain of losing them.

So, I just came out the other side of surviving a middling hurricane. Zeta was fast enough moving that we avoided flooding, but by the time it "landed" here, it was worse than when it hit NOLA. It was nearly a Category 3 by the time it reached us.

My husband and I had to rush out to secure the grill (he forgot to tie it down) and collect a few items so they wouldn't blow away. The storm moved in fast. I watched rain move sideways, wind howl, break trees and force telephone poles to submit to its will. I watched numerous shingles be blasted off of rooftops, hit cars and other houses and watched the wind rip the siding off houses. A few people in my neighborhood lost the windshields of their cars to flying debris. A few fences were uplifted and moved several feet or knocked down entirely. My extremely heavy outdoor potted plant was knocked over like it was a pillow and I watched our lovable (but dumb) neighbors go chase down a window screen that popped out down the street while 80+ mph winds whipped around.

In the end, the damage was extensive, but not un-repairable. Multiple cities were (and still are) without power and have been since Wednesday night. Most of our stoplights are missing, so police and volunteers are here from all over the state to help guide traffic until they can be repaired. Shingles were everywhere, but many of us picked up and piled them at the street corners for easy pick-up. Electrical/telephone poles are down or leaning everywhere. Trees are uprooted and knocked over. My husband commented that they reminded him of the little trees you put in train model cities. They don't look real. We passed by a boat-dealership and all of their formerly neatly lined boats were toppled over as though a giant child just came and capsized them all. It's been.. surreal.

My point is that up until around 4:30PM last night, my section of the world was very dark unless you could afford a generator (IE. almost no-one here can as they are very expensive). I've lived the last several days like it was some surreal camping trip, cooking things on a grill outside or using "canned" heat (Sterno). Not flushing toilets unless absolutely necessary to conserve water and trying to eat food we knew would soil, which led to some interesting food combinations (not necessarily bad ones!). I read a lot of books and we played a lot of card games. I wrote letters and post cards to people by flashlight/candlelight at night and got to reflect a lot.

Honestly, it wasn't as bad as I was prepared for it to be. Sure, not being able to play Animal Crossing or chat with people online kinda sucked, but I managed and was able to finish a couple of books and finish my son's Halloween costume in time, so it worked out.

I found out that I don't mind the silence as much as I thought I would. I was really afraid I wouldn't be able to sleep without a fan for noise or that it would be too hot to do anything. We lucked out that the storm was followed by a severe drop in temperature. It went from 85 degrees to 50 in less than 12 hours. We were able to open windows and utilize the cold day to save the food in our fridge/freezer until we could find ice.

Mostly, it was an interesting experience and I'm still watching and waiting for my fellow neighbors and city folk to get their power restored. A few places still aren't back on the grid just due to how much work has to be done. I'm holding out hope for them that they'll get power soon.