Roll Out The Beryl

Okay, it's Monday afternoon now, and Beryl has mostly rolled over us and is moving on by tonight, things should be calmed down again.

I spent the night at my news station last night. They called me in on Sunday, and had me on the clock until 2:00 AM. Then I went up the stairs and crawled into the bed I'd made for myself. I brought an air mattress from home, as well as a blanket and a pillow. I had pajamas and a change of clothes for today too. I actually slept pretty well, maybe even better than I do at home normally. My bedroom has a huge window that faces east, and the sun comes streaming in very early in the morning, so I have a hard time sleeping in too far past dawn, but at the station, I was deep in the bowels of the building where nothing but artificial light can shine, so it was dark much later into the morning.

When I finally got out of bed, I went out and looked at what was going on outside. The wind was still blowing pretty strongly, but the rain wasn't too bad.

I got in contact with my wife for a little bit, and she was able to tell me that my house had no power, and that the fence that goes between our house and our garage had blown down. That's not good. We're going to have to get that fixed. We can't be missing a fence with a yard that has a pool. That's not safe. She couldn't show me what it looked like, though, because it was still too windy to go out and check it out. Later, they disassembled it and piled the wood in the garage, but she still couldn't send a photo, because our cell service was down and it wouldn't allow a photo text to send.

I broke down my in building campsite, deflating my air mattress and folding up my blanket. When I took it all out to the car to store it for the rest of the day, I had to thank my lucky stars that everything was okay. The tree next to where my truck was parked had acquired quite a lean from the storm. Some more wind might have sent that thing over on top of my truck. The row of parking stalls just behind me had a branch down on the grass. That would have at least left a dent if it came down on top of a car.

Things weren't that tough for me at work, though. I could hear the wind and rain going on the roof all night long, but it never felt dangerous. It's a pretty big building, and it's also brand new. I started work at this station just a few months after they opened the new building, so the likelihood of any big trouble was small. The power stayed on...although it might be out and we could be running on generators, I'm not sure, to tell the truth. The water is still flowing as well, so flushing the toilets works just fine too. That was an issue during the freeze a few years ago, but not this time around.

Food, for a guy like me, has been a little more difficult. I brought a great big tub of meat, and at that for my breakfast this morning. My other options were pizza:

Or crackers and granola bars:

Or candy:

So, I'm glad I planned ahead. That meat I ate should last me the whole day, and we can see what the deal is tomorrow. Hopefully, our power will be back, and our fridge and freezer will not be full of spoiled food.

I guess I'll have to do updates as the days go on about power and stuff. But this is where we're at so far. Talk to you again soon.