I just wanted to throw up a quick post today to let everyone know that as of 11am today (Saturday) we have power, cable, and internet back. The power came back yesterday a little after 4pm, and after it did we discovered that the cable/internet was out.  So no tv, no video games, and continuing to rely on our cell data plan, which is UGH because after the 15th Verizon was going to start charging us again for it. We figured it was just that the commercial power outages were affecting Spectrum hubs, so we went to bed in the air conditioning hoping to wake up to restoration of the other services.

It wasn’t restored when we woke up, and that was when I began to get angry. I stayed patient through 5 days of sweltering heat and using flashlights to get around and taking rides in the car to cool off and worrying about the animals’ safety, but the idea that we had power and couldn’t have the basic comforts of tv and internet was what almost broke me. And then, as I was angrily swiping through Spectrum’s twitter feed around 11am, my phone said it had connected to the home wifi, and everything was finally okay.

It feels like we’ve been tortured for 5 days and then released back into normal life. I mean, that’s a bit dramatic, but it’s hard to put my finger on how I am feeling today. It’s like I don’t trust the power. I don’t trust the internet. I feel edgy, anxious, nervous – like I can’t quite relax. My brain is still thinking of survival techniques to get through as opposed to just accepting that everything is okay now. Where can I go to charge my stuff? Where can I go to get internet? Do we need ice? You know, just in case.

I don’t think I could do this again. As soon as we get paid again I’m going to plan out a way that we could buy a generator. We’re going to get a regular boom box type radio and a weather solar/crank charge radio. We’ve been making lists of the things we wished we had, and we’re going to buy them asap.

This also made me think about longevity in Florida. I hate being cold and I hate snow but I honestly couldn’t do this again and not suffer some mental health consequences. With the climate change concerns, plus the storms increasing due to warmer waters, moving north may just need to be a survival plan we have to put into place. You can stay warm/cool up north when the power goes out. Down here it’s just suffering.

But we are back, baby! Thanks for all your support through the week.