Hey, John - Thanks for the post, and I'm glad to hear that you and your family fared comparatively well. I've been through a good number of storms/hurricanes over the past few decades, and for me the worst aspect has been loss of power (which means no a/c). When Ike hit the Houston/Galveston area in 2008, I was without power for 14 and 1/2 days. If I wanted to listen to music during those days, I had to either use a battery powered boom box or retreat to my car.
Surviving Hurricane Ian with music
As the world now knows, Hurricane Ian tore through the east coast of SW Florida on 9/28/22, including our fare city of Cape Coral
My wife and I, as well as most of our neighbors, decided to stay in our homes and hold our ground, which resulted in 8 hours of pounding winds, at times close to 150 mph
When the storm subsided, around 9pm, we toured our neighborhood in my truck and saw the remnants of trees, fencing and almost all the shingle roofs throughout our subdivision, strewn about wherever the winds would carry. Luckily for us our home had no damage at all.
Needless to say we were out of power immediately, but had a generator on hand to power up the house, except the hot water tank and AC. After a few long days of clean up our house was back in order (Tree limbs and debris from all around us)
Without cable, internet, or cell phones we found ourselves seeking a new venue of entertainment every night. We found ourselves sitting pool side staring up at the heavens, as the sky each night presented us with a marvelous show of stars, clouds and a moon changing nightly as the week unfolded
A mainstay of our routine was listening to my audio system with the slider doors leading to our pool wide open. The previous month I had received my “refurbished” Ohm 3XO speakers which were just starting to break in. This was the “only” luxury we had to get us by, plus a few adult beverages
Our tastes were: Faith Hill, Neil Diamond, Carley Simon, Jeff Lorber, Chris Botti, Larry Carlton, Noah Jones, Chris Stapleton and Linda Rhonstadt
Through music we were able relax, reflect on what we had not lost, and let ourselves drift off and let the music take us away. It was routine we both looked forward to every night. In my opinion, this is what music was intended for…to take us away and leave our cares, problems, and concerns aside for a moment in time
Now that power is restored, as well as our internet a few days later, we are still enjoying a nightly routine of music, be-it at dinner or after dinner again outside looking to the sky, always counting our blessings
1 response Add your response