Writer's Block: Unnecessary Objects
After riding out Ike, I have come to realize a couple of things. I have come to appreciate some things a great deal more than I had in the past. I have also learned that something, while nice, are really just frivolous. Lets be upfront about this. My wife and I were lucky. We had no major damage to our home or ourselves. We lost nothing to Ike except power for an inconvenient amount of time. Others were much worse off than we are so I am not looking to make myself as any kind of hurricane survivor. That being said, it was because of the loss of power that these realizations happened. So to answer the question as to what I can't live without... Well, it is quite simple really. Air conditioning. Living in Houston when the weather is 85+ degrees with over 80% humidity is awful when you don't have anywhere to escape to. Under normal circumstances I could have just sat inside and relaxed with a cool drink under a nice ceiling fan. But with the power out, that was not possible. You know what, I will change my answer. It was not so much A/C that I can't live without, but rather just a method of cooling off. When I was a kid, I grew up in South Texas, where the weather is mighty similar to that of Houston and we did not have A/C. Ah, but we did have fans. Ceiling, standing, and box were just some of the kinds we had. And we made due. I will admit I like A/C a whole lot better, but hey, I can and have survived with just a fan. When the power went out, we did not have that. We did not have any real way to cool down since you could not cool or freeze water, and there were no fans and showers only helped for about a minute. So yeah.
Because of the storm I also realized that I did not need tv and the internet as much as I thought. I thought I was going to miss them very much. But in reality, I was ok. I mean I did miss watching tv and surfing the net, but I was not jonesing for it. It also did not help that we were with out these for several weeks even after we got power back.
The storm also helped me realize that all I really need to get by is some good company and how lucky I am to have good friends. The days after the storm were spent with my wife and that was just fine by me. We spent time talking, walking around the neighborhood and just being witheachother. The only drawback to that was the miserable heat, but well, you have already read about that. After the weekend was over, we were offered refuge by a good friend of ours. Spending time with him made me realize that one, I don't spend enough time on an individual level with my friends and two that I have really kick ass friends. He put up with us for a whole week. After that we visited family in Victoria, TX and spent the next couple of days with my sister in law.
I know this is supposed to be about what you can't live without even if you really can, but hey, it descended into this and, as my boss says, "It is what it is".
Because of the storm I also realized that I did not need tv and the internet as much as I thought. I thought I was going to miss them very much. But in reality, I was ok. I mean I did miss watching tv and surfing the net, but I was not jonesing for it. It also did not help that we were with out these for several weeks even after we got power back.
The storm also helped me realize that all I really need to get by is some good company and how lucky I am to have good friends. The days after the storm were spent with my wife and that was just fine by me. We spent time talking, walking around the neighborhood and just being witheachother. The only drawback to that was the miserable heat, but well, you have already read about that. After the weekend was over, we were offered refuge by a good friend of ours. Spending time with him made me realize that one, I don't spend enough time on an individual level with my friends and two that I have really kick ass friends. He put up with us for a whole week. After that we visited family in Victoria, TX and spent the next couple of days with my sister in law.
I know this is supposed to be about what you can't live without even if you really can, but hey, it descended into this and, as my boss says, "It is what it is".