Nancy, at last your life can begin to return to normal! By my counting, you were living without power, in the heat of a Houston September for 11 or 12 days. Will you need to replace any equipment or do appliances such as your refrigerator just need a good cleaning?

I don't believe I've ever been without power for more than about 5 days. And that was when I was a kid. My parakeet died from the chill. A winter storm took down the power lines and our main problem was keeping warm enough. Food spoilage was not a problem, we kept it out on the porch.