I Love Normal

Well, things seem to be returning to normal here in Louisville. Last week, an ice storm caused the second largest power outage in Kentucky history (second to only Hurricane Ike from last fall). It's still really cold, and giant mounds of plowed snow still remain, but most people in town have their power back. We never lost ours, but several friends and family did, and as a result we had quite the full hosue this weekend. Having 6 adults and 5 kids (3 of whom are under 10 months old) in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath house (the full basement was our saving grace) was quite an adventure, but at the end of the day it was also a lot of fun. Watching the kids play together, cooking massive amounts of food, and a great game of Risk (my wife won, she always does) highlighted a great 6 days. However, it was also quite nice to head home yesterday from work to find my wife and daughter as the only people home. I had a great, quiet evening that involved some great time relaxing with my family and a substantial amount of sleep. You know the old phrase, "You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone?" Well, today, I'm feeling more like, "You don't know what you've got 'till everyone else is gone."

Waiting for an Ohio River Tsunami

It's been a strange year here in Louisville. After being awoken early last spring by a magnitude 5.4 earthquake, yesterday we experienced hurricane-force winds as the surprisingly strong remnants of Hurricane Ike rolled through the area. Sustained winds of 50-60 miles per hour were recorded over a period of a couple hours with gusts reaching as high as 81 mph in the area. I've never seen anything like the damage I saw as I drove around the city last night - more than 300,000 people are without power and officials say that it will be 10-14 days before the grid is fully restored. Thankfully, Heather and I got our power back late last night after being without it for only about 10 hours. We lost some siding off the house and our doorbell blew off, but we're OK and we were spared any major damage. Several trees on our street were downed, though, damage to homes and cars was widespread, and at least one person in a neighboring county was killed. I went outside once to retrieve some siding, and it was the first time in my life that I've had trouble simply standing up because of wind. It was honestly impossible to move. Very strange day. Please pray for those in Louisville who have lost much. Safe to say, you don't really plan for earthquakes and hurricanes in the midwest.