Life can be funny. Sometimes I crack up out loud and other times I giggle to myself. My last giggle was a few days into our precious Summer vacation, after publicly promising to enjoy the small moments, we had a power failure. The storm itself seemed to turn on a dime. Within moments our home made a huge popping sound and went dark. Storms tend to make our family a bit on edge since we have experienced a few really bad and memorable ones (having lived in Alabama, yes, we’ve endured tornados). We are prepared though. The fIrst sign of bending trees and we locate our lanterns and battery operated radio. If you have ever moved you can totally appreciate the feeling of joy to actually find them and—even better—with working batteries inside! Should have popped the champagne right then and there! As the storm passed, we could hear sirens all around us. We went out and perused our neighborhood that is chock full of trees that reach the sky. For as far as our eyes could see, we were all spared of any tree and home damage.
As night progressed we opened up all the windows, doors and were so grateful for the breeze the storm blew in. Later that night we hooked up our portable generator and plugged in our refrigerator, one lamp and every single charger we had. We were not roughing it, but it was sparse living for us. The next morning, we made a big pot of coffee for neighbors and offered our “charging station!” For sure the power would go back on today! No worries, we spent the day together cleaning up our yard of branches and such. Later that night we ate take out dinner by candlelight while talking amongst ourselves. We did more looking up than looking down!
Long story short, we got power back in the middle of that second night and it was such an assault to the senses. As I stumbled around from room to room I was slightly sickened with all we had plugged in. Endless lights, not excluding my fascination for twinkle lights—geeze! Two TV’s in two separate rooms, music, a/c running alongside fans to keep the air moving! Too much, just too much. Pretty sure Mr. Edison never imagined this abuse of his invention.
With a new day at hand, I began to do the indoor clean-up. Finally I could run the dishwasher, do endless loads of laundry, heat my cold coffee in the microwave and open up the refrigerator without fear of losing precious cold air. Oh, and of course a/c went on and all windows and doors were sealed up tight. I was working hard which is why I thought it was hot. I thought I was so busy I forgot to turn on the overloaded dishwasher. As I bet you already figured out, that popping we heard when our power went out was lightning striking our air conditioner unit. That apparently helped destroy all appliances in our kitchen. So we called our insurance agent friend to begin the claim process. As it turns out, this was actually a “cat” storm and our damage was minute compared to others in our neighborhood, so we must be grateful.
So after bagging up over 7 bags worth of rotten, melted and pretty stinky food to the curb we are now on our way to go appliance shopping! Thank goodness we are on summer vacation so we can appreciate these little moments together.
Moral: Sometimes in life what you are looking for may arrive in a totally different looking package—I think it’s worth unwrapping!
your unplugged friend,
A little thing I got: One of our powerless nights we ordered delicious take-out food and look what I found wrapped inside my fortune cookie!
Au revoir my friends. Until I return-- be happy, be healthy and be safe!