I may be one of the only people you’ll ever meet who gets excited when I hear that a Hurricane is lingering just off shore my coastal Florida town. I’m here to tell you some of the ways you can put a positive twist on storm-related annoyances that most people overlook.
First, I must establish that I do not, will not and am not (an) advocate (of) death, destruction, flooding, suffering of any kind or disruption of one’s daily life for more than 2 weeks as a result of the storm. I simply enjoy any sort of change from day-to-day life, which can get quite boring.
Preparation
I love going to to grocery store and seeing all the waters/ various other hurricane related items completely sold out. I love digging out all the candles, lanterns, batteries and other supplies and making a big pile on the dining room table. I love being obsessive and charging every single electronic device I own, from my 2008 DS to my phone, along with several portable chargers, (It puts my slight OCD to good use.) I love watching, um, I mean HELPING, my dad cut down branches off of trees, clean the gutters from the roof, haul the shutters around the house and put them up, all with a sense of possible impending doom. (An exciting twist to the average Floridian’s day!)
The thing I love most about preparation is when all your preparation pays off. Like when the power goes out but it’s okay because you already planned out how to best utilize this exciting and rare time. Or when a tree branch blows up against your shutters and you’re so thankful you spent hours of time and energy putting them up.
Losing Power
I look forward to the power going out for a reasonable amount of time. It doesn’t happen very often, (hopefully), so I have to take advantage of this limited time. This is the reason that most people don’t understand. Why would I want to lose power?
When the power goes out, we get to experience what life was like in the old days before Willis Carrier invented air conditioning. I am always so grateful for air conditioning when it goes out because I forget how amazing it is. It is so simple to take for granted.
I also enjoy being in a dark house during the day. With all the shutters up, I get to experience my own home from a new perspective that day-to-day activity does not provide. This effect is more dramatic if it is cloudy outside as well, which is in itself a wonderful change from the blaring sun.
While a newfound appreciation is nice, feeling the wind blow through the open windows of our house is an unparalleled experience. It feels like I’m outside and inside at the same time. Another small detail that I enjoy is the feel of warm floor tiles, which are otherwise cool from air conditioning.
In the last hurricane, we had to put a towel on the floor to soak up the stored condensation leaking from the bottom of our refrigerator. I still don’t really understand how this happened, but hey, I’m no refrigerator mechanic. It drove my mom crazy but I thought it was interesting.
One annoying thing about losing power is not having clocks on the microwave and oven. This was something that I was strangely agitated over when we lost power during Hurricane Matthew. My usual “reference clocks” were simply blank screens.
When the power comes back on we have a newfound appreciation for not only air conditioning, but refrigeration, the feel of a cold tile floor, the clocks on the stove/microwave, the ability to use wall outlets again, and more. The air is also cleaner and fresher when the power comes back on for us to enjoy.
In all, it really isn’t as bad as it seems to lose power, and can give us a greater appreciation for everything may take for granted.
But wait…
….. It is only fun to lose power during a hurricane though.
If I lost all power due to any other circumstance than a natural disaster I would be VERY ANGRY.
There’s something magical about hurricanes, (again, NOT category 5 destroys-everything-floods-the-state-and-kills-people kind of hurricanes, the oh-look-its-windy-outside-a-tree-branch-just-feel—here’s-8-days-off-of-school kind.)
Anyway, that was a short summation of my stance on hurricanes.
Check back next week for the secrets behind the Pumpkin Spice craze!
