98 Hours

98 Hours...that's how long our house was without power. (From about 9 pm Tuesday until 11 pm Friday). And while that is by far the most lengthy amount of time I've ever experienced an outage, I am aware that conditions are much worse not far from home. I spoke with my dad this morning, who called Ballard County and the Paducah, Kentucky area a "War Zone"...power line poles snapped in half for miles; fights breaking out over the generator delivery that came to local businesses; he was contemplating taking his shotgun to work for fear that people would be too demanding. Some may be without power for 30 days, they're told. So my mind is on my childhood hometown...but here, too.

Tuesday night: Carrie calls from home to the library (where I work) to tell me the power went out but that some friends have offered their home as a place for us to sleep. This single offering (that continued for four nights) has been one of the most helpful displays of hospitality I have ever received. Trees were snapping and covering the roads as I went home to pick her and Sam up to take them over to our hosts' place. Carrie said Sam was freaked at first but when she got the flashlights out he was having a blast. I didn't go back into work that night because the roads were in such bad condition.

Wednesday: Carrie stayed home from work and we all hung out with our hosts that day. The hosts are a married couple with a 9-month old daughter. The husband broke his leg on Christmas Eve and has been healing/staying at home ever since. The wife didn't go to work because their daycare was without power. This also happened on Thursday. Wednesday night I got in my car to go to work, got going and almost had an accident on the way. I finally made it to Wilmore to find the lights at the library turned off. Apparently, my email is not on the listserv for Staff, Faculty, or Administration for Asbury College. They had closed at 6 pm. So I went back home...well to the hosts' house.

Thursday: Carrie went to work and kept Sam with her for the morning while I put in a few hours at my other job. Then I went to pick him up to eat lunch with him and some of my library co-workers in celebration of my birthday (a few weeks late, but that's okay...free meal!). I then took Sam to Frankfort to give him over to Carrie's parents for the weekend. (He's having a good time and we're going back there to pick him up tonight and bring him back home.) I drove back to Nicholasville and picked Carrie up from work so we could go to the hosue to get a few more necessities and throw away stuff from our refrigerator and freezer, whose contents were mostly ruined. (It looks like we'll be hitting Kroger today for replacements.) I went to work at the library Thursday night and this time it was open!

Friday: I took Carrie to work Friday morning and as soon as one of her feet hit the icy ground, she slipped and her head banged against the running board under the door. I was able to get her up and take her inside. She seemed fine so I went to run a couple of errands in Wilmore (turning in grades for the class I taught and my signed acceptance of the offer for the Ph.D. programme). I went back to pick her up and take her to the baby doctor, where she already had a regular appointment scheduled before all of this happened. They did an ultrasound to be sure baby is fine...and that is the case: heartbeat was regular and everything for baby looks normal. Then they sent us to the ER...*sigh*. Though there was only one person ahead of us in the waiting room when we got there, she didn't get to go back for 2 1/2 hours. The doctor was expedient and determined it was no concussion or anything serious, but wanted to get an x-ray to be sure there was no hairline fracture. No bone damage from the x-ray, so she has a strained neck and is in some pain and experiencing stiffness since the symptoms are synonymous with whip lash. Because of this we had to unfortunately skip a party with our Sunday School class but did enjoy pizza and a movie with our hosts.

So, again, my mind is on my wife's recovery and on the countless who are without power and basic needs in my hometown. If it comes to your mind, please remember them and pray for them in their recovery period...a long road is in front of them.