Is your mindset on "THANKFUL"?
Well, unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know that Hurricane Irma made it's appearance in the southeastern part of the USA. This included all of Florida and it's remnants caused havoc in the state of Georgia. I live in Georgia, a bit northeast of the city of Atlanta. It's a small suburban area where people still leave their front doors unsecured and where you are bound to see someone you know at the local high school football game.
Up to these past few days, everything was status quo. I wake up every morning, make my youngest son (the only one living at home) a hot breakfast, feed Oreo and then drop my son off at school before heading to my job. I arrive at work about an hour and a half early each day and leave about an hour and half past the time frame noted for staff. I get home, cook dinner, clean up, write my blog, relax, shower, and go to bed. Then it starts all over...see? super easy and manageable.
Like I said, everything was going status quo then Irma decided to show up. I prepared by purchasing supplies and lots of snacks.
Well, Irma decided to take her sweet ol' time and by the time Monday afternoon came around I was just about out of snacks. So no snacks, a few pounds heavier and as of then no full Irma presence. Our district, along with all others it seems, canceled school that day. By mid-evening Monday we lost all power and WiFi access. I'm glad Verizon still had towers active otherwise I might have lost my mind...ha ha ha!
We played board games, I read two books & took notes, I took pictures of lots of items I felt I could do without and prepared to load them on a "garage sale" type app- that my friend told me about. It's called LetGo, have you tried it? My son also jumped into the pool in the middle of the storm!
So by Monday night, we were hungry and I've already told you just about all of the snacks. So I took burger patties out of the freezer. My son and I started the fireplace. I cooked two cheeseburgers in the fireplace over hickory wood. When I told my friend that I had pulled my Little House on the Prarie skills she laughed. My sister thought I was resourceful.
The next day I heard my neighbor's generator. I asked him if I could charge our phones and he was super kind and let us. That Tuesday seemed a bit long. I did get lots of messages and some phone calls with friends and colleagues offering to help in any way. That was very kind of them and those are the type of acts that I will not soon forget. Later that evening, when our devices including our phones were running on low, I asked another friend if I could stop by. We literally brought 5 devices to charge up. She had to pick up dinner, but we stayed at her house and watched nonsense television. It was pretty nice there. You don't know how much you appreciate electricity until you don't have it at all.
Oh and my sister lives in Florida. She didn't evacuate even though I told her to multiple times. She and the rest of my family survived all of it with minor damages.
So, instead of being upset about the days I'll have to make up at work or about the inconvenience all of this caused me, I will just be thankful. I am thankful that my family, close and far, are all fine. I am thankful that all of my friends at work are okay too. I'm thankful my house had minor damages, part of the fence fell. I'm thankful that Oreo is still acting spoiled and could care less about Irma. I'm thankful I now have electricity and WiFi. I'm thankful there was no damage to my old and my new car. I'm thankful I can be resourceful if I need to. I'm last but not least, thankful for hot water...I hate cold showers!