August 23, 2007, We survived!!

Greetings everyone!

I am happy to hopefully, finally be able to announce that Becky, the dogs, and I finally survived Hurricane Dean! The hope lasts, because for the past week or so, Google hasn't been able to figure out how to get e-mail from my account to the e-mail list.

Becky and I weathered the storm with typical Nebraskan aplomb. We got up shortly after the power went out to make sure that our stash of 1 final pint of ice cream didn't get too melty in the freezer. That was about 2:30 a.m. We stayed up for about an hour listening to the storm--but without street lights or anything to light the night, we couldn't really watch much but the candle burn. After that, we stayed in bed for quite a while. The storm blew and blew and rained and rained but our apartment is very nicely sheltered, and we didn't have any flooding inside at all.

However, it took quite some trying to get the dogs somewhere sheltered and dry enough that they felt impelled to relieve their bladders during the storm. Becky got a rather good picture of me hunkered over Gabby, our dachshund, trying to shelter her with my rain coat and my body, getting plastered by the rain.

Hurricane Dean blew by without much ado, although I was betting it would stay less than it actually did. Since the time from the start of the storm to the eye was about 7 hours, I was betting on about 8 more hours til the storm was past. It ended up being more like 12, so we had a 19 hour hurricane. Then the power was off for a total of 39 hours. Just yesterday we got cable TV back, and we were without municipal water for about 20 hours. Our landlord did hook up a catch cistern for all of us, but one of our neighbors kept a train going to get water and get water. Becky and I couldn't understand what was going on that one apartment with 6 people in it would need somewhere about 200 gallons, but they apparently had a reason.

Now that Dean is gone, and grades are back--yes, I am invited back to be a 2nd semester student! Yay! Becky and I have been exploring the island. Of course, this has the logistical problem of the island having just sustained a hurricane. So, we've found that ATV tours are blocked by downed trees and landslides. So is the trail to the boiling lake, the tours on the Indian river, and other things ad nauseum. We're still finding ways to amuse ourselves.

Be ready for pictures and stories. We're trying to get some attained over break.

-Jared and Becky