Hurricane Beryl

 

Hayter article for July 14, 2024

“Then there was Beryl”

 

       A few years ago, Kay and I handled Hurricane Harvey without a problem. Piece of cake. I can say that because we were with my niece Rhonda and her husband Curt in Grandview, Washington at the time. 

 

We spent over five months with the nicest kinfolk you’d ever wanna know. -- How nice? --  Rhonda and Curt sent emails yesterday, asking us to return to Washington until the hurricanes are gone. I’ve gotta tell you, everybody up there just loves Kay. I believe she’s the one who received the emails.

 

Kay and I stayed home during Beryl. We lost power Monday morning and got it back Wednesday morning. The experience was survivable at best. The wind was terrifying. It rained in sheets. Fortunately, the toilet still flushed. 

 

Speaking of which, near bedtime, she gave me a sleeping pill. I wish she had thought to do it after breakfast. The pill was well-named. “Sleeping.” I was out like a dead bulb. When I awoke, there was a little rain and less wind. That and I had a powerful urge to relieve myself. Might’ve been the pill.

 

By the time I quit playing solitaire on my cellphone, the wind died… along with my phone battery. Perhaps I should have paid more attention. Did I mention I missed Hurricane Harvey?

 

It was the absence of electricity that messed up me and a lot of other people living in the wide trail of Beryl. Without electricity America, as we know it, cannot function properly. Both my phone and laptop ran out of juice. I had no way to communicate.   

 

I was upset that I could no longer continue my writing, but even more so that I couldn’t send or receive emails. Or get YouTube! And you can forget Hulu, Netflix, and Prime Video. They were gone. All I could do was play solitaire on my phone, up until the time my phone died.

 

Do you want to know how many candles we have in this house? Well, pretend you do. We’ve got ONE! It’s big and fat with a great smell. And it puts out the same amount of candlelight as a birthday candle.

 

We’ve got six or ten small flashlights in this house. Some of them even work. I’ll have you know that the week before Beryl came to our house I went to Sam’s and bought two packs, each containing 24 batteries. One was AA the other AAA. Triple AAA was the one most used.

 

When the smoke cleared, I had four working flashlights. The others refused to work. You would think I stored them in a cigar box along the Galveston Jetty. They were paying me back for the neglect. Flashlights!

 

       Among the greatest things that Kay has ever done since our marriage, was she prevented me from opening the refrigerator freezer during the power outage. It was a tough time, my friend. For breakfast I had oatmeal. For lunch, I had cereal, Wheat Chex. For supper I had oatmeal mixed with Wheat Chex.

      

The next afternoon, Kay and I were hot, tired, bored and hungry. Sociologists call it the HHTBs.

We got in the car to see how the rest of the town was doing, and what they were eating. Come to find out, the townspeople were better behaved than I’ve ever seen them. The traffic lights were out practically everywhere, yet, people were patient as all get out!

I approached four long lines of autos pointed in the same direction. Together, they were headed in 12 different directions. Most of the traffic was caused by people searching for a store and a burger joint. I was at the end of the half-mile line of cars waiting to drive past the intersection.

Each intersection had four lanes of traffic. That’s sixteen lines of cars. If they all went at once, it would’ve made the news. Yet, the politeness of each driver was spectacular. When a car from each lane made it to the front of the line, each driver waited for the proper time before moving forward. To do that, you’ve got to wait for the four lanes of cars waiting to go east, west, north, or south. The lights were dead and no one was waving the traffic through. The people were displaying the best manners I’ve ever witnessed in Texas.

          The only store we found open was HEB. That doesn’t mean there weren’t other stores, we just never noticed. What I did notice was that clerks and customers were the nicest I’ve ever seen. You ask me, distress is a miracle worker!

          My last observation happened on Day Three when the power came back on, meaning we had to clean out refrigerator. It’s one of those three-door things with one door for the freezer and two for the not-freezer compartments. It was to be the first time the freezer doors would be opened since the power outage. Has the ice cream turned to milk and the shrimp into bait?

          Kay saved the freezer for last.  The top part came out better than expected. The milk was okay. I won’t kn ow about the eggs until I fry one. Everything plastic storage container was tossed, as was anything with leaves.

The freezer? Everything was still hard as a brick. Kay and I did the dance of joy. After which I said, “I love you.” – She said, “I love you, too.” – I said, “Do you ever think you’ll stop?” – She said, “Only if you make me.” – Even during a power outage, there are unreasonable stipulations in a marriage.

      

end

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