Powerless

Last evening we had one of the most wicked rainstorms I have ever experienced. There was a tornado warning, but we ended up with "just" 80mph winds, rain, and hail. It was quite exciting, and I discovered, rather to my chagrin, that I might be one of those people who runs towards the storm with a video camera instead of running away.

A couple large branches came down in our yard, but overall the damage was minuscule compared to the trailers in Mansfield that got split in half by fallen trees (note to self: never live in a trailer. Not that I ever was going to. But this affirms it. lol) So when I drove to my grandparents this morning, it was very fun because I got to survey all the destruction. One of the dirt roads that T-ed into the road I was on was blocked by fallen crisscrossed willows, and further on one powerline was down. The pole had been torn out of the ground completely--only a small sliver as thick as my arm remained upright. In my neighbor's swamp, a bunch of poplars also got snapped in half, which is sad because they are one of my favorite trees.

There were no actual tornadoes, but it was windy enough that power outages are widespread. I think losing electricity brings out the best or worst in people. In this case, my cranky patient was made crankier and the morning/early afternoon I spent there was awful. My Papa T has a little generator, but he has no way to connect it to the main power breaker so he just runs an extension cord from it in the garage to the refrigerator in the kitchen. Admittedly, it was nice to have the refrigerator, but there is only so much you can do with one (i.e., it won't cook food for you... :P). 

Back home finally, I decided to write a blog post, as you can see. Our power has been out since yesterday evening, but thanks to our generator (the last thing, with exception to the lanterns and gas masks, left over from the Y2K scare, which we totally bought into), we can function fairly normally.

The lane had the chance to be fairly quiet today. Pioneer actually finished drilling and pounding pipe yesterday (hurray!), so the gas rig came down. Seriously just in time though, because an hour later we got those high winds. If the gas people had been any slower, the derrick may have been picked up and dumped on our house, seeing as they took the stabilizing cables off. The lane is not quiet though, even though they stopped, because of our generator and my uncle's generator. Not complaining. Just stating a fact. I am very thankful for those generators.

I've heard conflicting reports as to when we will have electricity again. Some say by tonight. Others say it will be a week. There is also another severe storm system heading our way apparently, so we aren't seeing the light at the end of the tunnel yet. I DO see the light at the end of my bedroom though! I am ecstatic. Since the bright white lights from the gas well shone right into my room at night, I had taped up some heavy brown paper over the window back in February, or whenever it was they started. Back then I didn't mind--there was nothing to hide except gray barrenness. I've missed seeing the green now, though, and am very glad to have it back along with the natural lighting.