The fall Columbus Toy Show was last Sunday. It seemed to be fairly low-key compared to how I remember the spring show. On the other hand, I got to armor up for this one, which was cool. I’ve more or less resigned to being Boba Fett to the uninitiated, but I suppose it could be worse. (I’ve yet to be called a Power Ranger, which is nice.) And while we were there, I was able to pick up a Dengar figure for my planned Gotal’ur custom and a Doctor Who fob watch, which I’ve wanted pretty much since I watched Human Nature/Family of Blood and wanted even more after watching Utopia. I was going to pick up some other figures for other customs (specifically a Rodian Jedi and maybe a Mon Calamari Mandalorian.) but the figures I had been eying were gone by the time we were finished trooping.
Anyway, that basically was the toy show. The real excitement didn’t start until after I got home.
The power was already out by the time I got home from the show. I heard later on that it didn’t go out for most of the state until the evening hours. It seems the remnant of Hurricane Ike (So many jokes – What do Ohio and Tina Turner have in common? We just got bitch-slapped by Ike! /rimshot/) met up with a cold front that had been passing through and created hurricane-like conditions including 75 mph winds which literally uprooted trees and ripped the roofs off of some buildings. Of course, on Sunday we didn’t realize the full implications of the storm. We all figured that the power would be back on after a couple of hours. “A couple of hours” passed and, as we went to bed, we were sure the power would be back on by the time we woke up in the morning.
Of course it wasn’t. Monday was by far, IMO, the worst day. Realizing that the power could be off for up to a week was quite demoralizing. I know I felt pretty useless and crippling boredom quickly set in. Dinner that night was a hodgepodge of anything that wouldn’t keep with the refrigerator down, regardless if we really wanted it or not. Tuesday was a lot better, though. Now with the shock of the situation completely behind us, I got a little more proactive. I remembered that I could pass the time by reading as long as I had some sunlight. I set out to finish “the Stand”, which I hadn’t even touched since the theater closed. And Wednesday was more of the same. Reading by day, hanging out with the family by night. Hell, I even had the privilege of talking to Jared AND Rene, which was nice – though it’s led me to believe that I actually died during the storm and that this is some sort of Purgatory ala early fan-theories for Lost.
The power finally came back on around 7:10 on Wednesday. It was a huge relief. Oddly enough, I think I handled the blackout best out of everyone in my family. It was odd because my parents both had jobs to go to with power, and my brother (who’s apparently quit his job, I’ve recently learned. I can’t find one and he just quits his because “the people there are stupid.”) and his girlfriend spent most of their time hanging out in stores with power. I easily spent the most time in the dark, the only time I left for somewhere with power being to dinner with Mom and Dad mere hours before the lights came back. After two days of reading (and finishing) a book that I love had left me pretty content, but everyone else was walking the razor’s edge of sanity by Wednesday evening. My mom cried when she got home and saw that the power was still off. On our way to McDonalds, my dad seemed to yell at every car on the road. And when we got home from dinner and the power was still off, they both went off even more, mom nearly in tears, dad shouting about the electric company giving up on our area and how we probably wouldn’t have power for another week at least. The power was back on about an hour after that. (I swear, stuff like that is not only why I believe God exist, but also that He has a great sense of humor.)
Tonight has mostly been about catching up. When I got on the Internet, I had 42 Gmail messages and 1085 items on my Blogline page. I’m also downloading the season finally of one of my Mom’s favorite shows, which she missed. Mostly though, it just nice to have everything back to normal. I’m trying to remember that there are still many who aren’t so fortunate, though. A lot of Ohio is still in the dark tonight and will be for the rest of the week. They may not be able to read this, but I wish them the best of luck.
