Just a quick nap--Pleeeeeeze

We've began running an unscientific poll here in my office. I happened to mention yesterday that since all the disruption to my life pattern for several days, I have been unable to sleep like I think I should.

The first night I slept in my bed was Saturday night after having been at my son's house for 5 nights. I thought I'd go to sleep and basically 'sleep the sleep of the dead' for several hours. This was not the case. I could go to sleep, but couldn't seem to stay asleep. And when I would wake, I felt this compelling urge to get up. I'd wander around a bit, then either settle in the recliner or go back to bed. This same pattern has continued for the last 4 nights.

I mentioned to one of the girls here in the office about my restless sleep, and she said she was having the same problem. I spoke with another fellow in the break room this morning, and he was surprised when I told him about my troubles, and he said the same was happening to him.

Now I'm beginning to wonder if this is a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I realize that none of us have suffered what the troops suffer, and I know this covers a lot of things, but I'm wondering if we aren't also suffering from some type of traumatic stress.

We were forced to either leave our homes, or stay and deal with the cold. We wondered if we would be able to feed our families while we had no power. We had no idea how long it would be before we regained power(and some are still 2 or 3 weeks away). If you left your home, you didn't know what kind of damage you'd find on your return. You wondered if your home would still hold all your belongings, or if in your absence, someone had removed your valuables. If you had a generator, you had to chain it to your house and hope it didn't get stolen. If you try to live frugally, you grieved over the loss of the food in your refrigerator. The thoughts of having to deal with the insurance companies if you did have damage. There were just too many unknowns that it made for an unsettling situation.

But one of the main things, was lying in the very dark quiet at night, listening to the hum of the generator, and the trees breaking, falling and the sound of ice crashing was like broken glass. Thefalling ice sounding like breaking glass made me think of the night in 1938 during WWII the Jewish people called Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass. This is a sound I'll never forget. It actually sounded like a war going on in the distance. Hearing and sometimes watching the transformers arc and hum as the lines were breaking and the eerie strangeness of the whole thing. We were very fortunate that we didn't suffer a great deal. We have been hearing stories of people who couldn't get out of their homes, had no place to go if they could, and were eating cold food directly out of cans.

I certainly don't campare myself to the horrors of war, or the injustices done to the Jews during WWII, however, the Ice Storm of 2009 will be with me for many years to come. I'm just hoping I can get some sleep since my employer frown on my napping at my desk.

One last thought--I'm going to watch the birth rate in late September and early October. I guess this will also be unscientific, but I'm going to see if the number of babies relate to the number of families without TV during the storm.

I hope you are having a fabulous Thursday. Pray for our country. Love one another.