Tuesday, August 30, 2011

SCHWOO! What a whirlwind of activities. Saturday hurricane Irene hit my area. The rain started before lunch time. Around 6pm my lights started flickering. I went to bed around 9:30 and still had electricity. I lay in bed thanking God that I still had electricity. I opened my windows because the hurricane winds produced such a good breeze. I kept on the A.C. since it was so humid. The humidity was 93%, which is typical VA weather in August. Well, around 10pm my electricity was gone. I woke up every few hours from the sound of trees crashing to the ground. I kept thinking "oh great, more power lines down. I'll be with out power for a while."

I woke up Sunday morning around 7 and noticed that the humidity level in my apartment was over 95%. I have a bearded dragon. This type of lizard requires hot & dry environment. She requires less than 50% humidity but prefers around 20-30% humidity. For more than 8 hours the A.C. didn't run, the dehumidifier didn't run, and her heat lamp wasn't working since there was no electricity. I literally panicked. I don't have children, my little beardie is my world. I love my little Zoey. I felt awkward, but I drove an hour to my parents house hoping that they still had electricity. I am very lucky that the electricity in my parent's subdivision is underground.

Obviously I couldn't take a 50 gallon tank and all of Zoey's supplies with me. Once again, I felt awkward, unprepared, and intrusive. I used a laundry basket as a makeshift "tank." I took a couple of her lights, but the lights don't really work well with a laundry basket. At first it was a big mess. Don't tell my parents, but I almost started a fire. It is actually quite normal behavior for me but I normally start fires in the kitchen while cooking, not in the bedroom. Ok, I start metaphorical fires in the bedroom :)

Anyway, I was very stressed about the situation. My poor little dragon (18 inches long) stuck in a stupid laundry basket and the only update from the power company was "up to 2 weeks" for my power to be restored.

On Sunday between noon and 7 pm, Zoey pretty much sat in the window sill and watched traffic. She's never seen traffic before, and she seemed pretty intrigued by it. Later that night as I was in the spare bedroom typing away on my laptop, Zoey was exploring the spare bedroom and decided to get stuck in a very difficult spot to reach under the trampeline that was folded up and nicely tucked away under the bed. That night I learned that I could never have sex on the spare bed. Every little shift in weight and the headboard BANGED up against the wall that leads to my parents room. I had to move the bed in all sorts of ways to get to Zoey.

So, as I'm stressing about what to do with my little Zoey, I continue to call the power company for updates. For some reason as soon as the automated voice said "service will be restored to your area...." the phone call was disconnected. I knew that there was limited cell phone service due to major hurricane damage, but did the phone always have to cut out after a 2 minute message telling me there are over 1.2 million customers without power, yada yada yada, blah blah blah? SON OF A BITCH!! is what I quietly shouted and typed in all caps on my word document. (My parents don't allow profanity in the house.) I emailed my co-workers to let them know that I would be late to work on Monday and turned off my cell phone since I completely failed to pack my charger. My next plan was to call the vet to see if they could took Zoey for a few days & I would later figure out how to pay for all of this.

Monday morning, I almost cried as I put Zoey in the laundry basket and left her alone all day in a strange place. Since I already told my job that I would be late and I was making excellent timing for an hour commute to work, I stopped by my place on the way in to work. I was so relieved to see that my electricity was working again. I didn't need to take Zoey to the vet for boarding!

Monday night, I pick up Zoey from my parent's place. I had about an hour commute home and Zoey had her claws deep in my left shoulder area the entire commute. Poor thing was scared out of her mind. As soon as I put Zoey in her tank, she realizes that she is home and starts to eat.

Today is Tuesday. I felt better emotionally. I'm not nearly as stressed about the electricity situation. I'm stressed about other things in life. I am very bothered about a dream that I had last night and about my non-existent love life and I kinda want that position filled.

Off to chat one last time this month with my brother. He leaves to a warzone soon.

later ya'll
miller

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