The Great Storm & Puppy Pictures

I don't know if I can adequately recount how ridiculous this week has been. As many of you may know, the remnants of hurricane Ike swept through this area a week ago today, bringing down around 5,300 power lines and leaving more than 300,000 people without power. Kristen and I were fortunate: we never lost our power and suffered no property damage (the picture above is from the group home where I work). However, the widespread blackout was the impetus for a number of stunning events. Here are just a few:

- Traffic lights stopped working. Now, I've lived through a number of power outages in my life, and when the power goes out, every traffic light I have ever seen reverts to a backup source that at least causes the lights to flash yellow, encouraging caution. For whatever reason, this very simple feature wasn't built in to any of the lights here in Louisville, so they all just went black. Since Louisville drivers are some of the worst ever, it made driving a lot more interesting.

- People made a run on gas. Seriously, everyone just relax. We're not going to run out of gas, at least, not unless you buy up way more than you need as a knee-jerk reaction. Are you unhappy with the +25 cent jump in gas prices? Maybe you should just wait 3 or 4 days instead of insisting that you fill up all your vehicles RIGHT NOW.

- Walmart ran out of candles and batteries. There were still no candles as of 3 nights ago...I had to tear into a box that had not yet been stocked on the shelf to find some. The picture to the left was taken 6 hours after the storm. When I asked where the batteries were, a sales associate pointed me to a shopping cart with 30 or so bent packages of AAs. That's all they had.

- Railroad signals stopped functioning. I know this kind of falls under the traffic signals, but I was so incredulous when I discovered this that I have to recount it seperately. Apparently, when the power goes out, there's no backup power for railroad signals either! I drove past the signals near our house for days, unknowingly taking my life into my hands at each crossing, until a generator appeared, chained to the signal box. Who came up with this system?

- Classes were cancelled. Jefferson County cancelled all public school class for the week, as did the seminary. While I was happy not to have to be in class, I have a bad feeling we're going to be paying for it for the rest of the semester, especially in Greek. I had to study by candle light at work; my atheist co-worker pointed out that I was studying like the monks of old.

On the upside, I got to spend several full days with Kristen, which was a welcome change from the fast pace of the semester. We were able to go to Homemade Pie and Ice Cream, which I heartily recommend if you are ever within 150 miles of Louisville. It's worth it, but you must go to the Upper Highlands location...all the others are just copies of the original. We also got to spend some good time with Paisley, which was both fun and entertaining. On Wednesday of last week we took now 13-week old Paisley to the park. For fun, you should compare these to the pictures of Paisley from my August 3rd post "Changing Times" to see how much she has grown. Here are pictures of what followed at the park:






Hopefully this week will be less eventful that last, but I will miss the slow pace of a few days off.