Blog Bio An Adventure, a storm, stairs and attitude

Photo by JuniperPhoton on Unsplash

Our daughter Cassie, husband Kurt, and our two youngest grandchildren live in Papillion. Cassie’s brother-in-law Grant, wife Tami, and their three children and one--Liam, Hannah, and Max, as well as Tami’s mom Julia, visited them recently from Virginia.

They consider Keith and I bonus grandparents to their children, so of course, we wished to see them. We babysat the four older kids Friday night while the couples went out to dinner. (Julia took care of little Max.)

After the parents got home, we visited a bit before we headed to the Fairfield motel where we were staying. Those who know me know even a curb is too much for me without assistance. Stairs are avoided because they are frustrating and exhausting. To say the least, I like that there is something called elevators.

Friday night a major storm hit the Omaha area. When I got up during the night everything was dark, very dark, and silent. What happened to the bathroom light? It dawned on me that the power was out. Keith also woke up. We were thankful the toilet and water still worked.

We went back to bed, hoping the electricity would be back on when we awake. It wasn’t. Then came the realization. The elevator didn’t work, and we were three floors up.

The room phone was dead. We dressed wondering exactly what to do. Though Keith can do stairs, it isn’t that easy for him either. The cell phones worked more or less. Cassie heard on the news that the length of the outage was unknown and might take a couple of days.

That was not good for us. Cassie and Kurt came to the rescue. Cassie grabbed some smaller bags, but we left the suitcases. They’d brought a flashlight that lit the way down a long, dark stairway.

Kurt helped me down three flights of stairs, one stair at a time, Scary, but with his help, it went better and faster than I thought it would. Still, I was thankful to be on the ground floor and so ready to sit down.

Street lights were out so Kurt took us on a backroads route to their house. I could see all the damage from downed leaves, branches, and trees. Wow! I was very glad to get to their home even though they also didn’t have power. Still, we weren’t stuck three floors up. The kids didn’t care. They had lots of adult attention.

Meals were interesting. I don’t think I want Fritos again anytime soon. (With my allergies, choices were even more limited.) In the evening, Cassie found an open Walmart and brought home food.

She told us, “This was all that was left. The shelves were stripped of everything else.”

As the power was still out later in the day, Cassie and Kurt went to the Fairfield, packed up all our stuff, and checked us out. Now there would be twelve staying in the house. But Cassie found a place for everyone to sleep.

Before then, between 8 and 9 pm, we heard a click, lights flickered and came on. The refrigerator began to hum. We had power! We never appreciated it more. Early on, I chose to consider the whole thing as an adventure--even going down the stairs with only a flashlight for light.

In fact, I didn’t hear complaints from anyone in the house, only ways to make things work and be thankful for what we had, a safe place to hang out, food to eat--even if not our choice, and loving family with which to share our adventure.

Sunday morning, we headed to Lincoln after lots of hugs and goodbyes. Power or no power, we’d made good memories--because we choose positive attitudes. And, isn’t that really the best way to live?

© 2021 Carolyn R
Hub Column published 8/2/21 Kearney Hub
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