And Saturday Tanks

Saturday was a day that didn't go so well. The rock art was a great beginning to the day, but mid morning, things tanked.

My plan was to work on Feast clothing all day, and I sat down at my new machine early and got started. As I worked, I noticed clouds rolling in and the sky growing dark. The forecast had been for a sunny day, but an unexpected storm was rolling in.

Suddenly the winds picked up and the trees outside my window began really lashing about. The rain came down hard and lightning was popping all over. The house lights flickered off, came back on, and then shut down completely.

A power pole by our lake had been toppled to the side in that strong wind.

And thus began a very long wait - the garage door was closed and would not open so I was stuck at home for the duration of the outage. (I am not strong enough to pop the manual release and Craig was gone.)

Our neighborhood Facebook page was kept updated as to how long the outage would be.

The anticipated repair time was eleven hours away. I snuggled in on the couch with the dogs and my Kindle and began the long wait.

Several more storms rolled through while I waited. An alert with a warning for a severe thunderstorm came through on my phone, and during that storm there was a very, very close lightning strike that was so loud and bright that I jumped, dropping my Kindle and screaming in surprise. (The dogs jumped in surprise with me.)  

Soon after I heard sirens coming closer and closer - I knew they were in the neighborhood and I think they were on the next street over from me. News reports said a home had been struck by the lightning and caught fire.

Craig came home mid afternoon and joined me in the wait. I got out candles and as it got darker, lit them while Craig went and picked up some fast food for our dinner. 

The lights suddenly popped back on around 8:00 PM, two and a half hours sooner than anticipated. We were so ready for it -  we'd been without power for eight and a half hours, a very long time. Luckily it was a cool day so we were comfortable despite no air conditioning.

I've since learned that those initial winds were up to 60 mph and that we had had two inches of rain - so much for a sunny day! 

I lost a day of sewing, but I will catch up today. And, the power outage meant that I could sit down and read the instruction book (all 87 pages) for my new sewing machine. I had to laugh when I came to this bit:

I need a droid who speaks Janomese - C3Po or R2D2, are you available?