The Calm After The Storm

 Sixty hours and I am finally back from the world of the technologically challenged.

Who knew that a simple dumping of 7 inches of rain in a mere 3 hours could cause so much damage?

The bright side is that without phone (including cell service), Internet, electricity and cable (all sporadically replaced over the last three days), I not only cleaned out my refrigerator but also managed to find the time for some long tossed-aside tasks (like that pile in the corner of my bedroom).

Who knew?

Sean was – what else? – great over the weekend. 

He helped load the car with boxes of food to take to Grandma’s house where an empty freezer awaited us.  He packed his backpack with books, merit badge supplies and his toothbrush and toothpaste (the kid is a brushing pro!) for the trip across town.

And, the most amazing part, while we were waiting out the hottest portion of the day over at Grandma’s, Sean did not once ask when we were leaving.

Imagine that.

It was tough on all of us to be suddenly thrust into a mode that none of us had ever experienced before.  Sure, we’ve lost power before with storms as well as cable and phone.  But this time was different.  While some said to wait it out because the electricity would be on shortly, our instincts told us otherwise.

I think we started planning our escape to Grandma’s as soon as we woke up that morning.  The power had been out for hours by then.  Streets were already flooded.

We let the kids sleep in.

It was Sean who noticed the lack of electricity first.  His routine is to come out of his bedroom, turn on the computer and then make breakfast while the computer is warming up.

It’s funny how it really didn’t faze him much at all.  In actuality, he was extremely nonchalant about it.

You would think that for a kid so tied to the computer that he would have freaked.

But he didn’t.

We set about our business of packing up the kids and the food – as well as 15 year-old Smokey – and headed over to my mom’s.

I look back and it truly was a family working together.  We each had jobs.  There was no yelling.  No screaming.  No crying.

It was all so calm.

Once we were over at my mother’s house, Sean had space to roam.  However, he spent much of the beginning playing in my mom’s mechanized chair that rises or lowers depending upon whether the person wants to sit or to stand.  He loved the fact that it had a remote.

He played with the thing until I worried that he would break it.  And then he decided to sit in it (it is one of the most uncomfortable chairs on the planet!) and read for most of the day.

I expected boredom.

I expected the required inquiries into when we were going home.

I expected pacing and circling.

I got none of that.

He did drive me nuts with the “rub me” though but that’s certainly nothing new.

We wanted to sleep in our own beds that night so we headed back to the house late that night.  The neighbourhood was still pitch black.

Again, I expected some kind of reaction from Sean – no doubt negative – about the power still being out.

Nope.

You would think…

I know my nerves were frayed…the worries and unknowns seemingly endless.

But Sean was absolutely fine.

Imagine that.