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Hi, I am back.
We are fine, and our house was undamaged by Hurricane Wilma. We had a lot of big tree branches down all around the house, which is a big clean-up headache. We got most of the big branches cut up and hauled to the curb as well as some of the smaller twigs and leaf debris. When things calm down, we will have to get a tree man in here to prune broken and tall branches so they won't be a problem in future storms. I imagine it will be a very expensive proposition.
We were actually very lucky, as there was a lot of tree and roof damage all around the neighborhood. A brand-new roof blew off a house a block over. The avocado tree of a neighbor on the street behind us blew into my next door neighbor's pool and partially destroyed her screened pool enclosure. Her pool looks like a swamp, and she is anticipating that it will cost her thousands to fix the pool enclosure.
Our power and phone lines were knocked out by the storm, at around 5 or 6am the day Wilma hit, on Monday, Oct. 24. We got back partial power at midnight the Tuesday night following the storm, much quicker than we expected - some lights were dim, and the AC, dishwasher, washing machine, stove did not work, but the fridge, fortunately, did. The AC made a terrible noise when the power came on, and my husband got up to turn it off. Fortunately, the weather was pleasantly cool for about a week following the hurricane. An electrician informed us that the problem was a power line connection that had been blown loose by the storm.
My husband tested the outlets to see which had full power and ran an extension cord from Foamy's room to my son's computer so he could work on his college application.
On Friday afternoon 3 days later, as I was attempting to cook pasta in the microwave, the utility guys came and turned off the power again, cause a live wire had been discovered in the palm tree across the street. I hadn't prepared for a power outage by turning my refrigerator to the coldest temperature this time, so I was concerned that all the food I had managed to salvage would spoil. I went around the corner to my friend and she kept me supplied with gallon jugs of frozen water to keep the fridge cool. It works great, but we still had to discard some food.
A man came and cut the wire on Sunday night a week ago, and gave us back our partial power. Monday night a week ago, two guys came and fixed the line and restored our electricity. I celebrated Tuesday by doing about half a dozen loads of laundry, running the dishwasher, and doing some cleaning. I never thought I would be happy to do housework.
Our phone was fixed last Wednesday evening, but still seems to be having issues. Since we still have a dial-up connection, I couldn't get online till the phone was fixed. Since my power was restored, I have been busy doing offline tasks that couldn't get done without electricity, and catching up with my email.
I have been trying to reach my doctor to get a note for work saying I am cleared to go back to work, but his office phones have not yet been restored. The answering service finally reached his office and called me back saying the note would be mailed today.
On the personal front, my foot really isn't back to normal, still swollen, and the toe that broke still feels very odd, but I am able to walk enough to work, and I was even able to do a bit of Israeli folkdancing this Sunday night. So I am hoping for the best. I will ease back into work gradually, I guess.
That's all for now. "Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?"<i></i>
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