One Week

It was a bit of an, um, strange week last week.  It started off as the previous one had ended - without Jeremy, who was away on a work trip in New Jersey.  After much delay, he'd left the exact day we'd returned from Atlanta, our paths not crossing at all and it seemed he'd be indefinitely held there until weather and mechanics cooperated.  Gideon and I puttered around the house, scrounged for food, experienced a daily rhythm that did not revolve the 8-6 work schedule we're accustomed to.

On Monday, our last gymnastics class failed to materialize - much to Gideon's disappointment when the Parks & Rec department mis-scheduled their facility; the makeup voucher is "in the mail".  Normally, this would have been the biggest event of the week; now, it seems insignificant.

Tuesday, a beautiful fall-preview afternoon turned Technicolor surreal when my house - or rather the earth supporting my house - shook for about 45 seconds, leaving my dining room chandelier swinging and me running around the house in my new orange (self-done) pedicure trying to get in touch with neighbors to make sure it wasn't just my house that had moved.  As you know, it wasn't just my house.

Wednesday, Gideon and I watched as the OB chased the baby around my belly with the Doppler, trying to catch it long enough to count the heartbeat - which was up in the 150s once she managed to get ahold of it.  She pronounced afterwards, "Wow, that is one busy baby."  It was the first OB appointment I'd gone to without Jeremy, who was finally on his way home from; it'd been two weeks since we'd seen him.

Thursday, Jeremy used his healthy amount of overtime hours to stay home and complete a few honey-dos (pulling down baby stuff from the shed - still seems so unreal!) and start prepping the homestead for the looming hurricane.  In the afternoon, he pulled out his unwieldy 40-foot ladder to double-check a repair job performed on a leaky roof last fall. After he climbed down, I tried to help steady the ladder while he lowered it to the ground, but gravity took over and it came crashing down, managing to cut a 2-inch long gash down to the muscle in my left leg just above the ankle on its plummet to the ground.

It might have hurt more if I hadn't been so worried about baby and the possible repercussions of treatment on our little one, but baby kept me reassured with its usual kicks and thumps while the PA cleaned and stitched the wound (8 stitches) and then entertained all in the room as it once again evaded (for upwards of five minutes) the nurse's attempt to capture just 15 seconds of heartbeat.  Gideon sat right by my bed the whole time, oblivious to the numbing injections, cleaning and stitching thanks to Jeremy's iPad.  Jeremy ended up sitting by the bed too, after getting a little woozy when the PA started numbing and cleaning the wound; he even looked a little yellow-green at one point.

Orange toenails, blue stitches, purple leg

Friday, Jeremy worked half a day, did our hurricane shopping and finished battening down the hatches.  We had the home-cooked meal I'd planned for the night before and enjoyed our first normal night at home together in over two weeks.  We fell asleep wondering if Irene would live up to the hype.

Saturday, we woke to rain.  Rain that continued all day and into Sunday morning.  Wind steadily grew from 30 mph, with 40+ mph gusts to 40 mph, with 60+ mph gusts.  The trees danced and swayed and threatened and leaned and dropped branches.  We went to bed that night in complete darkness and only the thudding sound of wind and rain, the power having finally given out at 7 p.m.  Our bathtubs were full of water and the kitchen counter was lined with pitches and drinking coolers full of water - when you live on well water, no power means no pump to pull the water out of the well.  Sleep was restless, one ear always listening for the crack that meant a tree would be landing on the house in a matter of seconds.  Gratefully, blessedly, that sound never came and by the time the sky started lightening up, it seemed we might be alright.

By mid-morning Sunday, the rain had stopped, the wind had died down and patches of blue were starting to appear amongst the last of the swirling, angry gray clouds.  Our excursion out to find ice to pad the cooler, refrigerator and freezers had us dodging the already-cut remnants of downed trees, many wrapped in power lines.  There was one convenience store open - parking lot swarmed with cars, staff inside overwhelmed and slightly dazed.  Clean up started once we got home - a third of our willow tree was lost and one of our apple trees had to be propped back up.  As Jeremy wrapped up his chainsawing late in the afternoon (he took advantage to dispense with a few small trees he never like anyway), a neighbor squealed with joy and we realized we had electricity again.  We fell asleep exhausted and thankful and clean, to the hum of our air conditioner and the pleasant not-complete-darkness of our usual nighttime.

Seriously, what a week!