Last Friday, like most of the east side of the nation, we lost power. It happened just as we were hit by a storm with very powerful winds. This happened to be the exact time that Will had finally been allowed to play his video game. At first, I was afraid we had blown a fuse, so I was relieved when I realized everyone around us had lost power as well. Later we discovered that much of the area including gas stations and grocery stores lost power. My relief quickly changed to anxiety as I saw several larger branches descend on our yard and the winds blowing other artifacts around the yard.
Naturally, we were completely unprepared. I had no idea where any flashlights were save two small battery operated candles the boys had received the night before at VBS and I knew we did not have a wireless radio. In a rare event, my cell phone was charged, but it did little good as I could barely get a signal. I belatedly realized I was not doing a good enough job of appearing calm for the kids as I saw Dom's anxiety rise. Luckily, the storm quickly dissipated and I was able to truthfully tell the boys that there was nothing to worry about and we just needed to wait for the electricity to come on. William just couldn't quite wrap his mind around the fact that we did not have power. He would go up to various switches and look at me seriously as he told me that he "just wanted to check if had power".
One saving grace of this event was that the temperature dropped 25 degrees in about 10 minutes. We were able to open the windows and the breeze quickly cooled down the house. The boys also had the opportunity to yell at the wind and tell it that it wasn't very nice to take our power away from us. Will, in particular, was very offended by this action and kept repeating that the wind was not very nice. Eventually we decided to play a board game and we read some books while we waited for Eric to get home and take us to dinner. It quickly became apparent that everyone else had the same idea as there was at least an hour wait at each of the restaurants we tried.
It turned out we were without power for 12 hours. One thing I discovered (after we bought flashlights)
is that if you point the light up to the ceiling, the white paint reflects the light back allowing for a brighter result than just pointing the light in front of you. Good to know for future outages.
The next morning we discovered we were lucky to have electricity as shortly after our power came back a branch fell on nearby power lines and took out the electricity for our neighbors across the street. Again, a bright side to the story is that our neighbors invited us over to watch the workers cut the branch away. Wanda really enjoyed having the kids over and was excited to give them graham crackers with peanut butter and milk. And the kids really enjoyed the snack and have requested a return visit.
Hopefully we won't need to wait for another outage to return for crackers and milk!
Next: Happy Birthday America!
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