It was really interesting, this past week, to watch human society devolve into something resembling barbarism (more on that in next blog). On Friday June 29, an intense storm whipped through a good portion of the United States, including here in Ohio. There was plenty of rain, and winds at times were in excess of 80mph, which is equal to a weak hurricane. Power went out in something over 1 million homes in the Central Ohio area, and some are still out as of writing this (July 7th).
The first night wasn't bad, most people thought something like "oh, it'll be back on shortly". However, as the hours went by and reports were emerging from the radio broadcasts, it was looking more and more like it was a bigger issue.
I was lucky enough to be sent to the store to get ice that first night, and got three bags. We put some essentials in a couple coolers: milk, eggs, cheese, yogurt...basically things that Kiera would eat. The temperature before the storm that day was 98 degrees, but it cooled off rapidly after that storm came through. The temp quickly climbed again after the front zipped through.
Saturday morning, after hearing on the radio that the temperature forecast for the next several days was in the 90s, we started looking into hotels. After calling every single hotel in the phone book (borrowed), we were out of luck. Either they were all booked up (thanks to the power outages, and a volleyball tournament Nationals), or didn't take pets. I'm sorry, but there was no way that Lola could stay locked up in a house without air conditioning.
My wife's mother, Sally, was also looking for a hotel for herself and her other daughter Krista (and her two kids), but she took a more direct route: she went to hotels and talked to them face-to-face. We were all eventually booked into a hotel for the absolutely outrageous price of $180 (after tax) per room...actually one was a little cheaper, because there was a pet charge.
One night on a rock-hard bed later, and we started looking for a cheaper hotel. We found one for about $50 cheaper a few buildings down from the one we were in. We got all our stuff together, got checked out, and went to the new hotel. Unfortunately, that hotel lost power about 5 minutes before we got there. We stayed in the lobby for about 20 minutes, to get out of the heat. However, the front of the building was basically all glass and was warming up quickly now that the AC was off.
Keep in mind that in our car there was: a pregnant woman (Paula), a 2 year old child (Kiera), a dog, and myself. We went down the road a few miles to a pet store that still had power, and sat there for a while to cool Lola off, change a diaper, and get some water for everyone.
We checked a couple more hotels down from the pet store. This one was really great. Still no rooms, but they were awesome when they heard our situation, and called several competing hotels around the city for us. They found a Comfort Inn just North of the I-270 loop around the city. On our way up there Sally, Krista, and the two kids called us (THANK ALL THE GODS FOR CELL PHONES!!!!!), and we checked on another main road en-route.
They found one! It was another Comfort Inn, and it was about half the cost of the first hotel. We ended up staying there Sunday and Monday night. Power was restored late Monday, and our neighbor texted me. I called off work on Tuesday so I could get all our crap out of the hotel and into the house while Paula was working.
Krista's power was finally restored on Wednesday afternoon, so they're back home now.
The temperatures for this past week have been brutal. Starting with Friday, June 27th, they have been: 98, 90, 93, 91, 95, 100, 98, 101. And it's supposed to be 105 today.
Our AC unit is working almost constantly, the dog is panting, and everyone is drinking water on an hourly basis. Things are supposed to get back to normal (in the 80s) by Monday or so.
Keep cool, everyone.
