Hurricane in the Midwest

Who knew that Ike could take out Ohio? The dying hurricane hooked up with another front and revitalized--knocking Columbus pretty hard. We were without power for two days. We still have friends with no power going into day 4. Schools are closed, including ODU. The good news: we still had running water, some stores and restaurants were open and the weather was beautiful. I'm considering it a semi-emergency experience. Just enough to be an adventure and a major wake-up call for us to get prepared in case of a real emergency. Luke and Michael did very well and were quite the helpers at getting our yard back in order. Lots of downed trees and blown off gutters around the neighborhood, but no damage to our house.

One of the more annoying things was that the power went out mid-laundry cycle with all of the boys' clothes in the wash. I don't exactly have a clothesline, so I had to make do with this poor overburdened sweater rack. Obviously, I don't have anything major to complain about.