Irene Update

So far the storm hasn’t been that bad up here in Maine; however, as of this writing there has been one casualty at Jarhead’s place.

3:00 pm

A fair sized maple tree in the backyard blew over while I was laying down with my son trying to get him to go to sleep.  Mrs Jarhead came into the room and said, “Hey Jarhead,” in a stage whisper (I’d fallen asleep with Toddler Jarhead) and motioned me to come out.  She pointed out the tree to me and I was amazed.  Not because the tree fell over, but because I didn’t hear it at all.  She heard it, but either because of the wind and where I was sleeping on the other side of the house, I didn’t.

The wind is still picking up here and I’ve got  a bunch of oak trees on the front lawn I’m keeping an eye on.  The power has  blinked at least five times so far, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see an updated post in the morning.  As a matter of fact I’m going to make a command decision and let this document be Monday’s post.

Whoops… we just lost power again for about a minute while I wrote this, so I’m going to hit the upload button and hope it makes it.  Nothing to worry about as I’m well prepared, but I might not be online in the morning.

I’ll update through the evening as time and the grid permits.

Update 8:45 pm

Lost another maple tree in the front yard next to the road.  Luckily it didn’t hit the power line, so I’ve still got electricity.  It’s blinked off and on again a few more times, but so far it’s always come back on and stayed on.

Other than some wind and a few driving rain storms Irene hasn’t been that bad up here – at least in my area.  I know some people down south got hammered pretty good, but as I noted in my previous post most storms have about fizzled out by the time they get up here.  If anything else happens I’ll let you know, but for now I’m going to hit the rack.  Good night!

Monday Morning Update – the day after

Here are a few pictures sent in by Outsider29 from Emerald Isle, NC. 

Thanks for the pics Outsider!

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I always try to take away at least one thing from every experience and here’s what I learned last night.  Our power did go out around 11:00 pm or so and I didn’t think much about it because we were long asleep by that point.  I had a flashlight on my side of the bed and Mrs Jarhead had one on hers, so no problem right?  Ha!

I woke up about 1:00 am to the sound of my 2 year old son crying from his bedroom.  I got up and it was as black as a boot in the house.  When he wakes up there’s usually enough residual light from the moon, nightlights and other little greenlight indicators around to easily see by.  Not last night! 

When I got to him he was on the edge of his bed crying.  I brought him back to bed with us and he was fine, but what I learned from this was that I need some kind of night light for the kitchen or living room that will stay on even if the power goes out.  Lesson learned.

What did you learn from the storm?

-Jarhead Survivor

BTW: 

If you have storm news or pictures to share let me know.  Send pics to my jarheadsurvivor@gmail.com account and I’ll put them up on the site, or you can just comment below.