School began on Wednesday with a half day. Thursday was the first full day. Both kids had ridden their bikes Thursday morning, so Steve pedaled down to pick them up after school. As he arrived the sky had a VERY threatening look--he parked his bike and DASHED into the school amidst sheets of rain and lightening. The power went out, and the school immediately went on lock-down due to a tornado warning, gathering the children in the hallways next to the lockers.
At about 4:00 pm, the weather had stabilized enough to allow for dismissal and the rain had, for a moment, stopped. Steve and the children rode their bikes home, only to discover the power here off, and a very large branch down in our front yard. At 6:00 pm the rain began in earnest... we were sure the non-stop lightening was destined hit strike our house! We wound up going down to the college for supper...we knew they were running on generators! School for the children was canceled on Friday--a snow day in August!
Oh, and did I mention that Thursday was the day new freshmen arrived at Wheaton College and we had house guests... friends from New Jersey with 2 boys, age 11 and 9? I felt so bad.. we couldn't even make coffee, our stove is electric, and all we could offer them was a bed, a shower (fortunately, our water still worked!) and a flashlight! They left Saturday night; we didn't get power back until Sunday afternoon.
What I learned through all this....
- Many things in your house are powered by electricity.
- I get very grumpy with no power
- I kept going to do things, only to realize that I somehow needed power to accomplish at least part of what I wanted to do. So I wound up just giving up.
- I was a bit envious of people with power.
- Three days without power requires you to do a thorough cleaning of your refrigerator and freezer.
1 comment:
Didn't realize I was getting behind on reading your posts! Did you really count the 199 steps? I'm impressed! Glad you guys aren't too affected by the flooding that the map on TV indicates your area is having. So sorry your power was out for company. At least they have super yummy food at Wheaton!
Post a Comment