Riders on the Storm

Well, this week started off with a bang, literally. We had quite a storm lastnight that came to a head around 1:30AM, complete with extremely loud cracks of thunder that almost made me jump right out of bed. The lightning occurred simultaneously, so the storm was upon us, and by the sound of it you’d think it was literally camped out on our roof. The electricity flickered a couple of times, then shut off completely. The thunder passed but the rain poured down for quite a few more minutes. In the meantime I traveled downstairs to retrieve my cell phone so I had some kind of alarm, just in case. I then made the obligatory visit to the bathroom, and out the window witnessed the downpour and the eerie pinkish cast of the nighttime sky.

I returned to bed but found it difficult to sleep without the breeze and the gentle hum of the fan. Just as I was about to finally fall sleep I experienced a tremendous itch at the base of my right thumb, and upon inspection by the blue light of the cell phone, discovered I had been bitten by something. Great. Nothing I love more than knowing there is some kind of bug in my bed. Normally under such circumstances I would go sleep in the other room, before I start getting visions of centipedes crawling all over my body in my sleep. But the comfort of my own personal space heater was appealing on this stormy night, and besides, he could serve as a back-up alarm clock in case the cell phone didn’t work. So I shook out the pillows, hopefully depositing the offender somewhere off the bed.

The rain stopped and all was silent, except for Husband, whose snoring was particularly raucous lastnight (in his defense, we’ve both been fighting colds). I forget how much the fan drowns it out! The rain started up again and I finally fell asleep. The last time I looked at my phone it was 2:47AM. I awoke at 6:05, about 5 minutes ahead of the alarm, and still we had no electricity. So I showered and dressed in the darkness, and tried to air-dry my hair as best as possible (needless to say as you can expect, I am looking quite foxy today). I called the electric company and they said our whole neighborhood was out, and they are usually back up and running within a 4-hour timeframe, but by then about 5 hours had passed, and she had been given no inclination of when service might be restored. So I hope we don’t return home from work today to a warm house and a bunch of rotten food.

Happy Monday.

Update: Looks like the electricity came back on around 8AM this morning, about 40 minutes after I left for work! Everything is back to normal, didn't have to throw anything out.