Ike Incites Insomnia

I seem to have developed insomnia in the past week. I have been out of work since last Thursday morning and I feel like ever since then, my ability to properly rest has gone down the drain. The first night (Thursday) we spent at Jacen's was fine. I slept GREAT, actually.

Friday night is when it all started. I was exhausted by midnight and ready to go to sleep and was able to as soon as my head it the pillow. The wind from the hurricane woke me up at 3 and of course I was frantic to see what was going on. By the time I went back to bed at 4 (I just wanted to sleep it all away) my mind was not so quick to be with me in slumber. I kept worrying about the possibility of a branch coming through the window and impaling us in our sleep. Or that a tree could just fall on the house and squash us. Needless to say, it took me at least 30 minutes to fall back asleep.

Saturday night was a similar story. I was completely drained from spending the day moving branches and checking out the devastation in our area, so I fell asleep quickly. Travis woke somewhere around 3am because he was sick from the still heat. After he drank some water, he turned the generator back on and we moved the AC unit and fan into the bedroom. That was much more comfortable, but then the little dogs on the bed (three chihuahuas) were all vying for quality space, which appeared to be anything within two inches from me. Of course, my mind was up and running again. What were we going to do? We only had two or three days worth of gas to run the generator. What do we do when we run out of food? Water? As it was, we were already having to plunge the water down the toilet each time it need to be flushed since there was no water pressure. We can't live like this.

Sunday we made the decision to go to David and Stephanie's house, where we know we could stay as long as we need. The promise of electricity, proper water pressure with water that isn't mixed with sewage and functioning grocery stores and gas stations lured us to northeast Texas. I am so glad we decided to go this route, but the stress doesn't stop here. We still have a family of animals that have been uprooted from their homes. We have our three cats and a dog, plus my sister's chihuahua/minpin and our friend's lab. Falling asleep is never my problem, it's staying asleep. For the past two nights, I have battled with a dog or four barking in the middle of the night and staying comfortable in a stuffy room filled with animals (we finally opened the windows last night - it is SO much cooler here than by the Gulf). Each night I wake up because of something the animals are doing and then my mind is off to the races again. I'm approaching an hour of restlessness each night before I'm able to fall back asleep.

I'm turning into a zombie running on coffee, so don't be surprised if this blog is a little jumbled.