Grill Date: 6/3/2011 9:05 AM
I.C.E. = In Case of Emergency
It's been four days since our grill purchase...an "intro level" gas grill by Weber. We decided on gas because I was more likely to be the one grilling, and though during the recent five day power outage I did finally resort to charcoal, as I found that candles under a fondue pot require two hours to heat two small cups of water for "almost hot" tea. The day of my charcoal grilling was a dawn to dusk affair, as I cooked our food, and heated our bathing basins, attempting with near-tepid results to carry hot water through the night by storing in Thermos®-like vessels.
When we finally got to a grocery operating on partial power, in our otherwise primarily powered-down city, my husband grabbed the cart while I scouted about on my own for "finds" of the fast-emptying shelves. When I found him again he had garnered the following "emergency foodstuffs": two apple turnovers, two doughnuts, a pack of cookies, a box of honey-intense granola bars, and a carton of soda pop. I confiscated the cart at that point and went back through for some actual food. (Sigh.) Just between us, I think if I "go first", he'd stock the cabinets just that way...and live to be a hundred and ten.
Prior to nature's onslaught throughout the South, was the March 11 quake/tsunami/radiation triple hit in Japan, my other home for so many years. Then Missouri's awful suffering and now Massachusetts' following so closely leave us all wondering what next?
I cannot say, but THAT day, the charcoal mini-grill day, was quite temperate. Alabama had some beautiful Spring-like weather during the days immediately following our tornadoes. There were dusk to dawn curfews enforced for all but those who had some means of proving their business. And quiet?
You've never HEARD so much quiet at one time, at least until folks began finding and running generators. Cell towers were down, even the tornado alarm sirens were non-operational for the last two local tornadoes on the night previous. So, the starry evenings were amazingly calm; and yes, we could see the stars. Our neighborhood was spared any significant damage from the storms, and people got out and spoke to one another like it was 1959 all over again. "Are you okay?", "Do you need anything?" And children appeared. Children DO live in this neighborhood. On day 2 my husband and I took an afternoon walk and purchased lemonade from children who hawking their hearts out in their front yard. I knew this oasis of peace and good will was bought at a terrible price of devastation elsewhere throughout our state, and even in another part of our city, but I could not help enjoying the short-lived cultural throwback to simpler times that followed so closely on the heels of destruction.
It is true. Though we have family members whose home will have to be rebuilt, still I will remember those quiet days as a gift.
And here and now the heat is back and I am grill master of the manor. As I was saying, only four days we've had it, and due, in part, to a non-weather-related kitchen malfunction, I've grilled daily since its arrival. Yellow squash, red onion, green pepper, zucchini, burgers, hot dogs, steak and last night Caribbean Chicken.
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