It was an ordinary day. And finally a day with some good news for once. After all the medical problems that my wife, Carol, and I have endured over the past year or so, and the recent death of my mother, we finally lucked out! Frankenstorm, as hurricane Sandy is called, has missed us. Not totally, but we were expecting our basement to be filled to the brink with cold, clear water from the underground stream beneath our home. This past weekend we visited with our daughter and her family in Urbana, MD to see one of our son-in-law's football games and to spend some time with our granddaughters. Had a good time, but left mid-day Sunday to get home to prepare for what was called the worst storm in our lifetime. I tied the lawn furniture down to the rear deck with wash line by putting large screweyes in the deck and running the wash line from one to the other etc. Then I used two of the same screweyes and ran heavier rope from them over the top of my Tiki Bar and fastened the rope to my fence which is about eight feet high. Wasn't going anywhere. Then I disassembled our artificial lighted palm tree and tied that to the fence. Wasn't going anywhere either. Removed all the planters and flags and we were set to go outside. Inside, Carol and I took everything off the floor of our basement and placed it on tables that were higher than the water that we had in our basement about 15 years ago. Items that were irreplaceable and were of any value we carried to the first floor. I have two sump pumps in the drain on our basement floor and I made sure they were plugged in and ready. Then I realized that if the power went out as was being predicted, I was in trouble. Headed to the Home Depot about a half mile from the house and was told that they ran out of generators three days ago. After many unsuccessful calls to other stores and many friends, I started to worry knowing that there was nothing more I could do. As long as the power remained on I was in good shape. Then we waited and waited. All day Monday Carol and I tinkered around the house, checking every hour or so to see if any water had started to enter the drain. The rain was constant, but luckily not drenching. The wind was blowing the tall grasses behind the deck with 40-50 MPH gusts. During the 5:00 PM local TV broadcast we got some good news. The main part of the storm would pass by in the next 5 hours. We went to bed shortly after watching "Dancing With The Stars" hoping that we would awake to good news. Well, that didn't work, since every couple of hours I awoke and hustled to the basement with my flashlight to check the drain and every time I would return to bed and report the good news to Carol. Light came and even though I was still tired, I got up, dressed and checked the drain once again. Then we turned on the TV and saw the total destruction that had happened along the east coast. 13 foot storm surge had hit the Jersey coast as well as New York. Part of the iconic Atlantic City Boardwalk was destroyed. The first floor of most homes and businesses had been underwater. Only those dwellings that had been built on "stilts" survived major damage. 1.3 million people in Pennsylvania were without power. The US Stock Exchange was closed for the second straight day; first time it had been closed because of a weather related incident since 1888 when a blizzard struck NY. The reporters kept telling us it was going to be a huge storm since the storm's millibar reading was 940, the lowest ever. I did have to get online at "Ask Kids" to find out what millibar meant and discovered that the storm had lots of energy and wind potential. Well, I just checked the drain again and did see some water stirring in the very bottom. Water that had not been there before, but the rain is subsiding and I feel that we have been spared the brunt of the storm. I feel bad for all the people who have suffered storm damage, since we have been through that before, but am glad I won't have to call my insurance agent and arrange a viewing of the damages. As I said at the beginning of my story, we were due for some good fortune, and I believe it was our time. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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