We have The Power!

Our electricity was finally restored last night at 6:30 pm.  I can't even describe how happy we were!

Man, that was some storm!  It rolled through around 10:30 pm on Friday night and I've never experienced anything like that before.  We received a t-storm warning, which is nothing new.   I was laying in bed watching TV and all of the sudden, it sounded like a freight train came barreling past our house. 

Normally with t-storms, you can hear the thunder in the distance so you know it's coming, right?  Not with this storm!  It was quiet and then out of nowhere,  the wind started whipping the trees and there was a torrential rain.  I got up and looked out the window and the full-grown crepe myrtle tree in our front yard was literally bent at a 90 degree angle.   The rain was falling sideways. 

It immediately felt "different" than a regular t-storm but you never want to overreact, ya know?  I walked away from the window and then I heard stuff blowing against the house so I looked out again and yelled down to DH that we might need to head to the basement.  He always teases me about being a "safety pup" so he just laughed at me.  Whatever.  If I saw a cow or Dorothy flying by, I was grabbing the kids and running!

And then the stupid power went out.  You don't realize how dark your house is until you lose power!   I tried to feel my way to the end of the bed and thought I cleared the footboard. 

Um, no.  I pretty much kicked it with my shin.  And, then I tried to take another step and tripped over the stupid laundry basket.  

I really thought the power would come back overnight or by Saturday morning at the latest.  Poor Chris woke up with a 100 degree fever so that just added to everything.  He was still running a fever yesterday but it came right down with Motrin and then he was fine.

The kids came down Saturday morning and expected to have their normal routine of breakfast and Barney.  Try explaining power and electricity to a 2 year old!   I finally convinced them that eating Cheerios instead of waffles or pancakes would be yummy.  Luckily, my laptop had some battery life so I was able to play a DVD for about 30 minutes.

The worst part was not having AC.  Holy cow was it hot! 

When it's 90 degrees in the house, who doesn't play football?

Growing up, we didn't have central air. I remember having a window unit in our dining room and another in my parents' room and that was it.  And, I don't remember being miserable as a kid.  I guess we all got spoiled, huh?

Late Saturday morning, one of my neighbors said she had access to a generator so we jumped at the opportunity.  We took turns between 5 houses and each got it for 90-120 minutes.  It was enough to keep the fridge charged and to plug in our cell phones and laptops. 

We got the last 2 bags of ice at the store.  And, it was only 7:00 am

Extension cords everywhere!

That afternoon, I took the kids' to our community pool for the first time.  They absolutely loved it!  Chris jumped right in.  Kendall was a little more apprehensive and took a few minutes.  The kiddie pool was just the right height.  They could sit on their bottoms and the water came just under their chins. 

We didn't sustain any major damage to our house but there are still trees down and houses and traffic lights are still out.  As of this morning, there were still 500,000 people without power in the Washington, DC Metro area.  The power company is saying this is the 3rd most extensive restoration in its history.  Winds were clocked at 80 mph during the storm.  That is crazy!

Throughout all of this, there was a silver lining.  It really makes you appreciate the every day things you take for granted.  It gave us some much needed family time without the distractions of TV and electronics.  It made us a stronger family and a stronger community.