Conference moira::parenting_v3

    When I got home from ZK even before lunch time I found my wife Nancy
    and my son Tobias engrossed in putting together a Lego Castle. It was
    for ages 8 through 12.  But this was a real challenge for even
    adults, let alone Tobias who is 5.
    So we three worked sometimes together, sometimes separately,
    to get it together. We finished it just as Bob was letting up.
    There were no significant power interruptions.
    
    Nancy had bought the Lego Castle many months ago and was
    saving it for the proverbial rainy day.
    
    Tobias and I also enjoyed watching the wind and rain blowing.

    I got home from work at 12:00 in time for my husband to run off to work
    to put in some overtime.  The boys played beautifully in their rooms of
    the basement until about 3:30.  I let them watch some TV figuring the
    power would go out at some point.  At 4:15 the power was gone.  We have
    gas cooking so I started supper and we ate around 5:00.  The boys
    played together until about 7 when they started to get real wild and
    crazy.  After a 15 minute time out (longest I've ever had to give) we
    cleaned up some toys, put on PJ's and started the bed routine.  By 8:30
    they were in bed and by 8:55 the lights were back on.
    
    We had no damage at all - I have two very young trees in the back that
    I thought might break - but they bent like rubber bands and bounced
    back quickly.
    
    My husband worked a 15 hour shift on Monday, a 12 hour shift on Tuesday
    and Wednesday and hopefully tonight will be back to a measely 8 hours. 
    Needless to say he is exhausted!  (He works at a local wastewater
    treatment plant and had to contend with the run-off from about 4 local
    towns.)
    
    -sandy
    

Like the others, we passed a fairly uneventful evening.  Our 
2-year-old liked watching the trees blow around in the yard.  It was 
still light out when we lost power, so he didn't notice. In the 
evening we used Coleman lanterns for light, which he loved.  I also 
hooked up a scanner and shortwave radio to a battery from the lawn 
tractor and we spent some time listening to what was going on in town 
(downed power lines and trees) and the world (the coup in Russia.) We 
had a lot of fun listening to the BBC and Athens Radio, so he didn't 
notice that there was no Sesame Street.

The only problems were that he didn't have a lot of patience for 
heating his night bottle "the old-fashioned way" -- in a pan of water 
on the stove.  Who'd have thought a kid so young would be spoiled by 
the microwave?  And he was upset that his night light didn't work. 
That was major enough that we had to leave a flashlight on in his room 
until he went to sleep.

Fortunately power was restored by morning. People on Cape Cod still 
don't have power and probably won't have for a week -- I don't think 
we could handle that gracefully.  The only dammage was to one of my 
ham radio antennas, and that was minor.

>>>==>PStJTT

    
    I passed the time trying to the kids playroom straightened out.  We
    didn't lose power through the whole thing.  The lights flickered quite
    a few times but, that was all they did.  I had my husband rent a video
    game to keep the 5 yr old busy and put the 2 yr old and 6 month old for
    afternoon naps.  After they woke up from naps we had supper and played
    in the playroom.  For a short time we watched the trees in the back
    yard blowing around (didn't fall).
    
    						Carol

    We didn't lose power.  We watched the storm coverage on the TV
    news for part of the time, watched a few trees fall, talked a bit,
    wondered whether the power would stay on long enough to let us
    roast a chicken for supper.  Nothing much. 
    
    We're in a pretty sheltered part of town on high ground, so we
    didn't get much effect.  
    
    --bonnie

    We had quite the eventful day on Monday!  Grocery shopping was SUPPOSED
    to be done Monday night so, of course, we had nothing in the house -
    including DIAPERS!  We had been away for the weekend and hadn't heard
    about Bob until Monday morning.  My husband had already left for work
    so I ran around the yard in the rain gathering the lawn furniture,
    swings, toys etc. and put them in a safe place.  Then I dropped the
    kids at the sitters (no Day camp for the older two that day!) and went
    to the grocery store.  After that was done I called work and found out
    that the building was closing at 11.  So, I went to Somerville Lumber
    to get some type of pipe for my side gutter as the water was pouring
    out of the downspout right next to the garage.  Then I got the kids. 
    When we got home I went out and tried to fix the gutter.  By this time
    it was POURING!  Well, after the gutter was fixed I looked in the
    garage and found it was flooded and almost ready to come into the
    basement!  So, panic call to my husband...he told me exactly what to
    get at Somerville Lumber (what I wanted to get in the first place but
    was talked out of by a know-it-all saleman).  Pile the kids in the car
    and head out AGAIN!  We got what we needed and got back home (with my
    pessimistic 7 1/2 year old saying "I can see the water going into the
    basement now - HURRY!).  I fixed the gutter AGAIN and spent the next
    hour sweeping out the garage (it hadn't gotten to the basement yet).
    
    Husband got home about 2.  Uneventful til around 4 - then we lost power
    RIGHT after I had defrosted some meat in the microwave.  Then my
    husband glances into our back yard and sees our largest tree has just
    lost half of its trunk!  He goes into the bedroom to watch when the
    rest comes down.  The kids and I stayed in the kitchen.  When the rest
    of the tree started to go I grabbed the kids out of the kitchen (that's
    where it would have hit if it hit the house).  They TOTALLY freaked! 
    We calmed them down.  They were so relieved that it didn't hit the
    house that they didn't even care that it wiped out their swing set!
    (AND our screen house!)   
    
    After all this excitement I was just as glad the lights were out as I
    used that as an excuse for early bed (7:30!).  
    
    NO MORE Hurricanes for a while ------   PLEASE!   ------

    Let's see:
    
    I arrived back from the hospital (see birth announcement topic)
    after staying up all night.  After a short nap, I was watching
    the weather with my son Alex (1.9 years old) and my mother-in-law.
    The power went out and we used a Coleman camp latern and candles
    for the next 48 hours.  I went back to the hospital once to see
    my wife and daughter after the worst was over.  We have a tree partly
    down in the back yard, but it isn't threatening anything more
    important than a fence.
    
    Alex was bored: he particularly missed watching Pooh videos, which
    is something we do when it's rainy all day.  He also wanted to go
    outdoors.  But he loved the candles, and didn't seem to mind the
    noise or darkness.  I told him a story rather than read to him
    at bed-time, and played with him during the day.
    
    One good side-effect of the power loss is that I went to sleep
    early both Monday and Tuesday nights, and so got more rest than
    I would have otherwise, as I couldn't do laundry, etc.
    
    				-John Bishop

	Ole Bob was very interesting for my almost-7 year old son.
	He wanted to know why they named the hurricane after one of
	his mom's favorite cousins !!!!  Then, when everyone started
	talking comparing it to Hurricane Gloria, he was amazed that
	they had also named one after his (unknown) grandmother !!!!

	We started the day early, since the downpour at about 4:30 a.m
	woke me up.  I got up and turned on the weather channel to see
	what things were looking like.  Matt got up about 5:30 to go
	to the bathroom, found me up and decided to stay up with me.

	Based on the predictions and the fact I was only due to work
	a half-day, I decided to stay home and keep Matt home with me.
	We both put on raincoats and went out in the yard to see what
	still needed to be picked up/battened down from the thunder-
	storm and cookout on Sunday.  He helped me get stuff into the
	shed or the cellar and then we went back in to have a late
	breakfast.  LOVED being out in the rain and splashing around
	without Mom being upset about him getting wet (:-}) !

	Spent most of the morning listening/watching back and forth
	between what was going on outside, what the weather channel
	was saying and what Channel 5 was saying !

	By mid-morning, we started watching the water rise outside
	across our neighbor's back yard and onto ours.  Found out 
	the street drains were NOT clogged, as we suspected, but
	the rain had filled them to the brim and one was flowing
	IN THROUGH the drain pipe on my land, instead of OUT !!
	The other drain was overflowing onto the street and up to
	the land !!!  Matt thought it was great, watching the
	neighbor's dog go "swimming" in the back yard to fetch the
	ball.....he was REAL excited when a friend of mine joked
	about emptying the water out of the canoe and going canoeing
	in the back yard !!  Then when the dam up at the golf course
	broke free, we had another overflow from the other side of
	the house and a WATERFALL down our steps to the patio !!

	The other stuff Matt did......got out his kid's encyclopedia
	on Hurricanes to see what they REALLY were....then turned around
	and got the one on TORNADOS to see what the difference was !!
	Watched Wizard of Oz video until the power went out and did
	lots of story-book reading !!  Me, I spent hours just checking 
	on what was happening, trying to get as much perishable stuff up
	off the cellar floor as possible, and, once the power went out, 
	spent the next 2-1/2 hours BAILING out the cellar drainage hole 
	before it overflowed all over the basement floor !!

	All-in-all, I think Matt enjoyed the storm, the day off and
	helping Mom with the downed tree branches and limbs the next
	morning !!!!   Me, I'll vote with one of the other noters....
	no more for a while, PLEASE !!!!

	Debbi J

    Hey Deb, all things considered you seem to have had a very enjoyable
    and more important creative time during Bob!
    
    Now when we have another storm can I send AJ your way for education and
    entertainment???  :-) !!
    
    Lyn