I thought that at this time today I would be well into my first exam question, figuring out the thesis, finding citations, and structuring the essay. However, I got the call at 7:15am this morning, 15 minutes before the exam was set to begin, that it has been postponed due to the power outages in the area. And why were their power outages?
Enter Ike.
That's right, central Ohio, 1200 miles from Houston, had serious damage from Ike. I knew the rain/storm from Ike was supposed to hit us Sunday evening. However, Ike had other ideas. Instead of sending rain and lightening our ways, it decided to take a straighter path north, and the edge of its winds hit a cold front from the northeast creating hurricane force winds of a sustained 45mph here in Columbus, gusts up to 60mph. It was windy all day, but really started to pick up and be noticeably stronger than average around 3pm. Around 4pm I heard a large crash, and looked out our front windows to see a 30 foot chunk of our front tree hanging down to the ground, still attached about 25 feet up. I am hoping we can think of a safe way to get it the rest of the way down ourselves, but we might have to pay someone to come cut it down. Its small enough in diameter that we could take care of cutting it up/disposing of it ourselves if it just would detach.
Anyways, despite the winds, around 5pm I headed to the grocery store to get lunch and snacks for the exam day. The wind was unreal, the force of it hitting the car. When I was driving into the wind it was hard to accelerate. When I was stopped at traffic lights, the whole car shook. The grocery store was open but power was out to their freezers/fridge, so they couldn't sell out of them. I ended up with some snacks and a boxed Asian meals. Coming out of the grocery stores I felt like I was in one of those old movies, where they show people leaning against the wind. The gusts were literally stopping my forward process. If I stopped bracing myself/moving forward, I would lose my balance and step back. Putting the groceries in my car was crazy, I couldn't just open the trunk for fear that it would be ripped off. Back in the car, I saw lots more damage on the way home then I had noticed on the way there. There were plenty of trees down, and I even saw a street sign bent 6 inches from the ground, so it was parallel to the ground. Crazy stuff. I was going to go to fast food and grab dinner on the way home, but the fast food restaurants that had power had lines out the doors (I assume all the people without power).
I got home around 6:15, and shortly after that the power went out. I was a mess. Would exams happen? Did OSU have power? How would I know? Where should I go if I did not have power in the morning? If I did have power, would I have Internet? AHHH!!! Not to mention, of all the nights in the world, it was the one night I really needed to not just be sitting around and thinking. I got an instant stress headache. I ended up sitting in my car charging my cellphone and listening to a Harry Potter audio book until around 10pm and then trying to fall asleep (which was a relatively unsuccessful endeavor). I woke up several times throughout the night, and when I woke up at 5:20am, I realized our fan (and therefore the power) was back on.
The biggest problem with exam delays is that most of those things that I wanted to take care of after my major exam (studying for minors, registering for classes, scheduling orals, etc). In fact, as soon as I finish writing this blog entry I will be off to study formal theory, my minor topic. This is all just one more stressor I do not need - this Dragon seems to keep getting bigger. Guess I would still rather be facing it though than spend my life bored to tears.
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