Last Saturday everyone up the East Coast was bracing for Hurricane Irene. People were running out into town to snatch up all the supplies they could carry. The lines at the hardware store snaked around the length of the aisles. Batteries, flashlights, and FM handheld radios seem to be the more popular items. At the grocery store the story was the same. Patrons there were stocking up on ice, bread, and canned goods. The store had all their checkout counters open. It was a weird sight because stores like Wal-Mart tend to have numerous checkout counters, yet for some reason only a handful are ever open. It’s like having the ability to drive 120 mph in your car but never going above 75 mph.

I have to admit we weren’t as prepared for the hurricane as I thought we were. I underestimated the effects the hurricane would have since it was not a dangerous Category 3. I knew there was a possibility the power would go out, but I didn’t anticipate it would be out for days. We lost power on Saturday along with the rest of the area. No lights, no Internet, nothing. The natural light from the sun was available during the day while flashlights and candles were the only options at sunset. At night the area was like a ghost town. No one had electricity.  Only a few businesses had generators; they closed early to save energy. When the sun went down everything was pitch black. Kind of scary to be wandering out in the dark, so we stayed home mostly.

I never realized the impact of electricity on our lives. What I mean to say is how heavily dependent we are on electricity and how lost we are without it.  For example, when our power went out we were okay at first. We had our ipods fully charged. We played with our ipods to entertain ourselves until the battery gave out.  Then my husband and I didn’t know what to do. There was no t.v. to watch. No video games to play. No Internet to surf. We didn’t even have a handheld radio to find out what was going on in the world. We were bored.

The first night we sat around wondering what to do. When it got dark, we went to bed. Then we realized it was a good time to have some quality family time together, so we talked with each other and played with our baby girl. The experience taught me some things about making time for family bonding. Sometimes we get lost in our everyday activity and forget that. In the end we turned a negative situation into a positive one.