THAR SHE BLOWS

I love a good storm. I love to feel the wind. I love the way the air smells. I love the wildness of it…. until it all goes bad. There are storms that are wild and fun and nobody gets hurt and then there are the kind we have been having in the area for the almost 2 years we have been living here. According to people who have lived in this area longer than we have this is something new.

The damage being dealt by these winds has been terrible. This last one resulted in the death of a woman when a tree fell through her roof. This was not close to where we live but it was the same storm. Just tragic.

Previous to this storm the last one tore off part of our roof and blew out some of the soffits. It carried a heavy wooden double tete-a-tete chair out from our lower patio right across the yard. Another foot and it would have tumbled down the embankment and on to the golf course. Good thing I saw it when I did. Our patio umbrella is tied up tightly in its cover and the base has 300 pounds of sand in it to keep it stable. I’m not sure I even trust that.

We sustained no damage this round. The winds were 96.4 kilometers per hour. For you non-metrics that is 60 miles per hour. The house shook. The trees in the distance swayed and the power went out. All our wires are underground but further down the line a tree fell and took out a pole that shut down the source.

Normally what would be just an inconvenience became a big problem for me because I work from home and completely on the computer. I could not work at all on Thursday.

As the day without power wore on I was texting my coworkers advising I would not be able to do my shifts. They had to cover for me. My phone was dying a slow death.

Lighting is not an issue for me in these situations. I have enough candles to light up a church. I also have some battery operated ones that I used at Christmas that I used this time and they were great. I have lots of batteries on hand. No fear of open flames either but of course would keep the regular candles on hand too.

I am going to search out some good emergency lighting though. I know there are some nice flat lights that you plug in that will come on when the power goes out. Great safety wise if you have to get around the dark house to even find your candles. I think they also have a motion sensor for night time house wandering.

We have a gas stove so I can cook during blackouts. I just don’t want to open the fridge at all during this time.

I did learn a few things during this storm that I will share with you.

• I think now I should be charging my phone every single night with no exceptions. Why take the chance that it will be at half power when you are not going to be able to charge it up. I also need to buy a car charger.
• I learned that the wall switch that turns on a gas fireplace still works when the power is out and you can at least get some warmth from that. The fan will not work but the fireplace will. Wish I had known that earlier in the day since I was wrapped up in a big blanket trying to stay warm until my BB Guy got home. He just flipped the switch and bingo! Cave Man makes fire. 
• I learned that the car battery charger in our garage is not just for cars and it has an outlet for charging your cell phones too. Again this little tidbit of information was given to me by my BB Guy after he got home.
• I learned that when you make a desperation, we have no power, run for your morning coffee to Starbucks they will give you your coffees and bagels for free at 6:30am in their drive-through line if their debit machine isn’t working. I didn’t even have time to get out some cash. They just waved me off saying on the house. Don’t worry about it.
• I learned that if I drag my laptop and a second monitor (I need 3 screens to work comfortably, two if I am roughing it) to my sister’s to work on the second day without power that the power at home will come back on within an hour of me being there. I also learned that my sister will send me home with a container of homemade Pea Soup for my lunch. Okay so this wasn’t all bad.