Sunday morning my husband and I were rudely awakened by a severe thunderstorm. There was a large clap of thunder and lightning, and I could feel it in my chest. DH said, “That sounded close.” Then another one struck, our alarm clocks sparked, and the lights went out. The smell of electrical components burning filled the air. We jumped out of bed, threw on our clothes, and went around unplugging things and making sure there was no fire either in our yard or in our house.
The fire truck came and parked in front of our neighbor’s. They were sitting outside in the car. Apparently they mistook their electrics burning for a fire. Turns out our next door neighbor’s tree was struck, and they even had electricity shooting out of the wall!
We were without power all of Sunday until about 8 PM. When it came on again we were able to assess the damage. I had been hoping our dryer would be fried because it is on its last leg. No such luck, the only things fried were things we didn’t want to lose! Our window air conditioning unit, our cable modem, digital cable, two computers, and garage door opener were goners.
I took the day off work yesterday to call the cable company and insurance. This morning I waited around for the cable guy and am at work with access to a computer. It’s been a crazy couple of days, which explains my lack of posting!
So without further ado, for your enjoyment, just in time for Ohamanda’s Top 10 Tuesday, are the 10 Things I Did When I Was Without Power, then Internet and Cable.
- Ate a delicious breakfast that DH made on the grill.
- Went to my parent’s for lunch.
- Went to our friend’s house for dinner and to do a load of laundry.
- Dreamed about the new appliances I’d get if our appliances were fried and the insurance was paying for them.
- Came back to reality when I found out our deductible is $1,000.
- Cleaned the house thoroughly on my day “off.”
- Realized how much more I get done when there’s no internet or TV.
- Noticed that the peas grew a couple of inches from the morning to the afternoon.
- Saw a bird eating the mulberries off our tree.
- Secretly wished we had no electricity more often because it was so quiet and relaxing.
I am actually grateful for the experience. Being forced to be still and unplug was a good reminder that I need to do so on a regular basis. It’s good for the soul.
Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
I think it’s amazing you found 10 things to do~ Glad it was short lived, although I’m sure it did not seem like it at the time!
You were very resourceful indeed! Like you, I have found that days without the computer can be very productive! But it’s too bad that you lost so many other useful things. I admire your positive outlook.
Saw this on the Index and read it – great post! I think I will just unplug some things and check out the peace and quiet. I enjoyed your take on this – when it happened to us, it ended up being almost a week before things came back on so I heated and lived in front of the fireplace (it was Feb), cooked and heated water on the propane grill, ended up using all my wonderful Yankee Candles (with the upside being I HAD to replace them, right?) and, as you said, had much peace. Your post just reminded me of that time – so yes, it’s time to unplug!