Joanne a ture friend in an emergency!

I had a really big wind storm go through here, 80 mile an hour winds. I had one of my big pines ripped completely out of the ground, totally uprooted it landed on another one and has it knocked sideways, I don't know if the one that is side ways will live or not, time will tell, it's roots are not sticking up to far out of the ground but the angle it is at I fear the tap root was broken so I doubt that it will make it. I've lost a lot a trees over the last several years for various reasons, ice storms, flooding, lightning, beavers and now wind storms. I've had trees get broken in half because of the wind before but this is the first time I've had trees completely uprooted by the wind.

My electric was out for 3 days, I got my internet back not to long after I got my electric back. I was surprised I thought that might take a lot longer. I was lucky that none of my trees took my lines out but a lot of trees took lines out farther down the road from me. I heard there were a lot of trees down in the road blocking it off for a lot of people around me. Some of the people didn't get their electric back for over a week. Three days was too long for me and I was getting worried.

One of my friends brought me some supplies. She was worried about how I was doing. My phone still worked through all of that so I was still connected to the outside world that way. I had ran out of anything to drink by the 3rd day, I had started out with a jug of cool aid and a jug of apple juice. I haven't been keeping extra water in the house since my dogs have all died. I did have a lot of canned fruit in the pantry shelf so I wasn't too worried.

I have an electric garage door opener that I could of used the trigger release to be able to get my car out but the last time I tried that it ended up broken when I tried to get it hooked back up and it took me over 3 months to get it fixed so I was just going to wait it out before trying to get my car out and go to the store.

She was alarmed that I didn't have any water and only eating canned fruit for 3 days so she brought over 2 gals of water and a case of bottled water, a Pizza, 4 liters of pop, a box of chicken wings, and 2 bags of snack food that didn't need heated up or kept cool, and a bag of ice. I did end up getting my electric back on that day. But what a relief and joy to have a friend like her at that time of need.

I realize now that it is important to have extra food and water on hand for emergencies like that and I plan on doing just that so I don't get into another situation like this again. It was unexpected but we don't ever know what might happen and we should be better prepared for things that we don't expect will happen, if everything goes well we should be happy in knowing the peace of mind that we are prepared just in case. I will keep at least 8 gals of water now on hand for other then drinking purposes. I would keep more then that but that is all I have room for.

I had a lot of food in the freezer that I was hoping would be alright if my electric came back on in time so I didn't open the freezer I couldn't cook anything in there anyway without electric. I haven't used the charcoal grill in a long time and ran out of charcoal and fluid and never got more. Now I see how it could be handy to have on hand for a time like this. I could of had a hot meal and a way to heat up canned soup if I would of kept charcoal on hand. I could of used at least some of the food in the freezer when the electric was still off the second day instead of it all going bad with the electric off so long.

It was wonderful getting to enjoy all the goodies she brought over and I was more relieved then I realized to have supplies to get me thorough a month if need be. The best part was knowing that I had such a good friend that cared that much for me. A friend that would go above and beyond to help me out in a time of need. She gave freely of her own time and resources to help me out even with having plenty on her own plate that I would never be able to keep up with.

I would of been happy with just a jug of water. But she brought me everything I could possibly need and lots of great treats that kept my spirit up. I would of never thought about all the nice things she thought of to bring me. I wouldn't know where to begin to think of what someone else might need in the way of food and supplies to get by for a week or more without electric. I have trouble trying to decide what I want to get for myself when I go to the store when things are alright. Everything she brought over was wonderful and such a good idea. I was surprised that she brought me so many things I really liked, I had no idea she knew what I liked to eat, it's not something I remember about people. She did better at bringing me stuff I liked then what I could of gotten for myself.

Thank you Joanne and thank you Father for blessing me with such a good friend.
Love Karen