"Real" Storm

Many of you have heard of the devastation that occurred in Phoenix late Thursday night, early Friday morning. Hurricane force winds blew through Central and downtown Phoenix knocking over trees and power lines, blowing in windows and causing electricity to be out around the city. I am grateful that all seems well, there have been no reports of causalities due to the storm, and people are getting their power back! I have to say though that it put a REAL damper on my day!


Tyler was supposed to go to school (didn't get a call that it was cancelled until we were on our way, her school had no power), and Jackson and I were heading over to Matt's Big Breakfast. THIS very thing is the reason why I don't tell my kids where we are going until we get in the car to go there or as we are pulling up! Jackson is obsessive, and once he knows we are going somewhere, there is no appeasing him (EXCEPT with Chuck E Cheese, and that place doesn't open until 10, so it doesn't always work!)! However, this time was different because it was his four "special" days with me, so I let him choose what we did. Even though Tyler's school was cancelled, I was not even going to THINK about detouring from the original plan. We started off towards Central Phoenix, and once we crossed over the mountain at 7th St and Peoria, the drama began!! 7th St was closed, so I cut over to Central on Mountain View. Sunnyslope was attending school, so I thought, "OH, that's good news!" Kept driving, got to the light at Northern, and it was a stand still! There was no electricity, AND the most irritating part was that there were NO POLICE OFFICERS in sight trying to direct traffic! I cut over to 7th Ave, and it wasn't much better, but I told myself that it was because it was three lanes as opposed to Central's two! Finally, we get to Missouri, where for the first time, I saw a policeman directing traffic. I LITERALLY rolled my window and gave him a "THANK YOU" wave! He nodded in response, but I was just soooooo happy to see him or anyone for that matter directing traffic! I was able to pick my mom up from Brophy so that she could come with us through the destruction of Central Phoenix

We finally made it to Matt's Big Breakfast ONE HOUR AND FORTY MINUTES after we left home!!!! When we pulled up, I was certain that we would be the only crazies out in the aftermath of the storm. BUT NO, there was easily an hour to two wait wrapped around the building. My heart sank, I thought, "I know we drove all this way, but now I have TWO CRAZIES with me instead of one, and they are NOT going to wait for food!" SOOOOOO, my mom and I made the heart wrenching decision of driving by and heading back towards home, but we found this wasn't as easy as we thought. 7th St was closed just North of McDowell because an aluminum roof had blown off a building, so we did a u-turn and pulled into the Einstein's Bagels at 7th St and McDowell where we all inhaled our bagels. Jackson was STARVING! Then we walked over to the Safeway in the same complex to kill some more time, and it was just so sad walking in there and seeing all the refrigerated stuff being pulled off the shelves. There were no baked goods because they had just gotten their power back as we walked in the door. It was like NOTHING I have ever seen before.


Pat had a horrible time getting to work that morning as well. What is normally a 15 minute commute lasted over an hour because all the streets he takes to get there were closed due to downed power lines.



I have a whole new respect for what the people in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast are preparing for! My thoughts and prayers are with each and every family preparing for the worst!