It's late ... and it's dark ~

It's after midnight and I was just enjoying my late night television while I was listening to the nice, stormy weather we're having ... when all of the sudden I hear a zing and a pop followed by a bright light outside of my bedroom window followed by two more zings, pops and blinding lights.

I sat straight up in my bed (fully encompassed by the same sort of metal that I'm sure was used in the Benjamin Franklin/kite incident) and I wondered if I had just been through a near death experience involving lightening OR if I dared move since my bed was obviously not great for electrical storms.

Jake & Garrison were fast asleep, Keaton was sleeping in a tent at his friends house, but I soon heard Kacey yell from the other room ...

"I'm pretty sure I'm TERRIFIED!"

And then I heard Matthew complaining that Petey (the dog) could not sleep without air conditioning.

So I grabbed my coal miner's head lamp that rests on the metal post of my dangerous bed (doesn't everybody have one of these JUST for situations this catastrophic?) and I decided to put some clothes on before going out to explore my surroundings.



Matthew came out with me, and even though we could see that the whole street was dark, we began to test the breakers ... just in case everybody else's power was out because of the freaky power surge that I beheld, but OUR house would only be a slight breaker problem. No such luck. However, in the process of flipping said breaker switches, I'm pretty sure we caused some permanent damage and I'm now waiting to see if we will be the only ones left without power because we had to go messin' with switches in an electrical storm!

There was a small fire in the ally behind our house. Fire trucks have been nearby, as well as the electric company. The last truck just left our ally and I think he forgot to finish the job ... because alas we are still in the dark.

All of our cell phones need to be charged, and a feeling of being not-so-prepared has come over me like a soggy wet blanket. Then I saw something. I saw a little blue light shining like a beacon in the night. It was coming from my computer! My computer is backed up by battery! YES! I now have access to the outside world for at least 45 minutes! Should I try to reach someone? Should I try to find help for all of my frozen food that has begun the thawing process? Should I quickly learn Morse Code just in case I am left with only my head lamp to communicate with? No. I should blog.

I really need to work on my priorities.

I think it's going to be a long night.

Update: It is now 1:55 a.m. While all of this was going on, a white truck full of blond girls came by and generously delivered some toilet paper all over our lawn and trees. How did they know that we needed this?

The street was all lit again ... except for my lone house. I had to call my father-in-law across the street, who woke up my brother-in-law the electrician ... and they have temporarily fixed the aforementioned breaker. I don't think it was our fault.

While I was traipsing around pretending to be an electrical engineer, I stepped on a tiny piece of glass that is now lodged in my brittle heel because I hate shoes.

My new goal; learn to love shoes.

I was right. Long night.