When A Storm Blows In
Last week a storm came barreling through my town taking many trees and branches down as mother nature unleashed her fury on us unsuspecting folks. It wasn’t predicted to be as bad as it ended up being and though it lasted for only 20 to 30 minutes, it did a lot of damage. I lost power for approximately 36 hours, though there were many more who were without electricity for longer than that.
For several days, it was all people talked about. Businesses were closed, appointments cancelled, and time seemed to stop for a awhile. Luckily, the weather was cooler so even though the power was gone, the open windows provided relief from the heat and I was grateful that I could sleep. In fact, minus being able to watch tv or get on the computer, I rather enjoyed the break from the hum of electrical currents all around. Once the lights went out and there wasn’t much to do, I fell into a deep sleep and awoke to the sound of birds chirping. It was one of the best nights of sleep I’ve had in some time.
For others the outage was less relaxing and much more irritating: people had to throw out the contents of their refrigerators and freezers, and kids started whining at the lack of things to do. It certainly was a matter of perspective. After the destruction I’ve seen in other places on tv, this seemed like only fair. We have dodged many bullets in the area I live in.
Some of the positive things I heard of included neighbors looking in on each other and sharing power with those who didn’t have it: in some neighborhoods one side of the street had power while the other side did not. Strangers talked and shared tales; everywhere we went, it seemed people were talking about the storm or cleaning up from it. It brought people together. For a short time, we were in a shared experience.
Far too soon though, electricity came back on and life quickly resumed its normal pace. One good thing: Harry Potter, Deathly Hallows part 2 opened at midnight on Thursday night and so the destruction of the storm paled in comparison to Hogwarts and for a little while many of us even forgot about the clean up and damage brought on by the storm. but I’ll save that story for another post. Thanks for reading.
Suzanne