Friday night, June 29, I was home alone with Daisy while Mike was working Friday Night Live and went out afterward with some of the guys. I was watching a recorded TV show (probably Real Housewives of NJ or something equally trashy) when I heard the wind outside. I peeked out the living room curtains to see the color of the sky and the wind blowing sideways. Now, I've been in a couple tornados in my life while growing up in Southern MD, and I knew better. I grabbed Daisy dog and went downstairs into the only windowless room in the house: the bathroom. The rain literally sounded like it was knocking on the door and Daisy was not happy. Then the electric went out... and stayed out. I texted Mike asking him to come home as soon as it was safe. We waited to see if the electric was going to come back on and decided to go to bed around 11:30pm. I stayed on the couch downstairs and Mike slept in our bed upstairs. Did I mention it was about 90* outside? The next morning, still no electricity, and we had no cell or data service either. We had no way of connecting with civilization! Now my father was supposed to be coming that morning to add some base molding to the room we just had carpet installed and I knew he'd be coming early. I woke up at 4am and couldn't sleep thinking that he'd drive all the way out here for nothing. Finally at 7am, I walked down to a neighbor's house and used their landline phone to call my dad and caught him walking out the door! Whew... guilty conscious (and angry father) averted. I went out to get us breakfast and that's when I realized how bad it was. Our whole side of town was closed. No one had electricity. Saturday, the temps started rising to about 100*. Mike and I set up the spare bed in the new room downstairs so that we could both sleep in the basement that night if need be. The downstairs was about 75* while upstairs was about 85*+.
My good friend Jessica was planning on visiting that evening and staying the night, but I delayed on contacting her because I still had no cell phone and I was sure the electricity would come back on. Mike couldn't remember a time he had lost electricity in this house. At about 3pm, I went out to my car to charge my phone (and sit in the A/C) so that I could call her and tell her not to come, but within 5 minutes, she was knocking on my car window wondering what I was doing in my car. CRAP, she had totally driven all the way here and we didn't even have a cold house for her to relax in. She was such a good spirit about it though and said she'd stay regardless. We were all bored and hot so we drove to Mike's Aunt and Uncle's house to dip in their pool. We then continued with our original plans to go to the movies and see Magic Mike... in the A/C. Driving through town was crazy. Every place that had electricity was packed. No one in town was prepared for this storm and they all needed to eat so the restaurants that were open had lines out the door.
Sunday, the fridges and freezers in the house started to leak. Jess helped me through my anxiety attack of throwing out all the stuff in my fridge and half the stuff in my freezer. I packed up two coolers and Mike took them to his cousin's house to store in their deep freezer. I was so thankful we were able to save the expensive meats. I had just just spent over $200 at the grocery store the week before so it was all pretty depressing... dumping out full cartons of milk, tubs of margarine, salad dressings, cheeses. We took some hot dogs and buns down to Michelle and Dennis's and had a picnic of food that had to be eaten at their house. Michelle was about 37 weeks at this point, but she was a trooper. I think I would have been in a hotel after the first night. Jess left our house and I'm sure she was glad to get back to her house with electricity in MD. Mike and I got in the car with Daisy and drove to my Dad's house that afternoon. I needed a shower badly and had to get some clothes washed for work and our trip to Florida later that week. My dad was trying to convince us to stay the night, but I had my first day at a new job Monday and didn't want to risk the traffic in the morning from MD to VA. Mike and I headed back to the hot-house and slept for the third night Sunday with no electricity.
At about 12:30am, the hallway light downstairs came on and I woke up immediately. I got Mike to get up and close all the windows upstairs (we had opened them that night because the upstairs got up to 90*) and turn the A/C on. The sweet humming of A/C was a lullaby to my ears. I woke up again at 6am before my alarm went off and didn't hear the humming. I was immediately awake thinking the A/C broke. There was no way the upstairs was cool, but as I ran upstairs, I realized our A/C rocked and it was already 74* upstairs. This Thanksgiving, I will be sure to give thanks for not only my newborn son, but electricity too (Thomas Edison, right?)
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