Ike Reflection

Although we are still in the middle of restoring our house, stop lights are out all over the city, and massive piles of leftover debris litter the sidewalks, we are trying our best to put Hurricane Ike behind us. As you can see above, we tried to make light of a heavy situation by donning headlamps during the 8 days without power - my fiance has a way of making me laugh even during highly stressful times!

I did learn some things about my daily consumption of energy from this experience. For instance, I found myself automatically flipping light switches in the middle of the day when entering a room. If it's light outside, there is no need to use electric light! I will be more prudent about this now that we have power again. I also realized that I am a culprit of using too much water. Sure, I turn the faucet off while brushing my teeth and try to limit the amount of time in the shower, but I can - and should - conserve even more water. There's nothing like a few days without running water to enlighten you about how much water you normally use.

As you can see, I've found an ecologically-sound silver lining to my first hurricane experience!