Sheltering From The Summer Storm

I’m writing this post from the basement of my Mom’s house, because she has power and we don’t. The record-breaking heat we had on friday (106F and it was not a dry heat!) led to severe storms that caused major damage. According to the outage information on our electric company’s website, nearly 1/2 the people in my city are without power (28,000 customers). My mom is lucky enough to live in a pocket of the city that was spared, and generous enough to invite us over.

While a summer power outage is not as much fun as a winter snow day, it feels the same in some ways. Neighbors are out talking to each other, sharing information, commiserating, and offering help with removing large downed branches. What was going to be a normal Saturday filled with household chores turned into a day of “adventures”: finding the closest Starbucks with power for our morning coffee, going to the office long enough to recharge phones and laptops, and using the facilities at the gym to dry my hair. As the day wore on with no electricity in sight, my husband’s passing mention that “Moonrise Kingdom” looked like a good move turned into an impromptu date.

We weren’t the only ones hoping to stay cool at the movies!

After the movie, we had to face the reality of another night without power. When we got home we checked the temperature inside the refrigerator.

Ugh!

We poured out the milk, half-and-half, and Eggbeaters, and packed up a cooler with the unopened sandwich meat and cheeses.

I guess I will be filling up the trash can tomorrow. 🙁

We grabbed a few overnight essentials, and headed to my Mom’s house. We showed Tiger Lilly around her house, and let her play in my Mom’s sprinkler. We cooked our hamburgers for dinner, and added tomatoes and green peppers from my Mom’s garden to our dinner salad. When my son headed out to the movies, we took Tiger Lilly for a walk–it was nice to have a new neighborhood to explore, and especially nice to be able to take a long walk without having to trudge up any hills!

I’m sure I’ll be antsy tomorrow–it will get harder and harder to avoid thinking about all of the things I’m not getting done–but for now I’m enjoying the forced down time and the unavoidable family time.

What is the longest you’ve been out of power?

Did you see any movies this weekend?

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8 Responses to Sheltering From The Summer Storm

  1. Kate Summers says:

    We didn't lose power, but were w/o internet, cable, phone. Hope you get back home soon!

    • Coco says:

      That's almost as bad. I'd still want to go somewhere else! But at least your food didn't spoil.

      Sent from my iPhone

  2. Janice - Fitness Che says:

    The Northeast Blackout in 2003 was the longest I've been without power (2 days). It wasn't that bad, we moved the food from the fridge into the deep freezer, so that even though we were losing all of our frozen meats, we could salvage our fridge items. We also have a camping stove, and a fair amount of camping equipment, so we made our coffee on the stove etc. We couldn't drive around much though because none of the gas stations had power so we couldn't buy gas. It was summer & it was in the middle of a heat wave so we slept in our cool basement after cooling off by running through our sprinkler 🙂

  3. David H. says:

    I hope things are returning to normal for you. I never lost power, but I am realizing how unprepared I am (and most of Virginia is) for a natural disaster.

    • Coco says:

      Yes, we are home now. Luckily it never got too bad for us, although the novelty certainly wore off when we had 4 people trying to get ready for work at my mom's this monring!

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