Well, OK, that’s a tad melodramatic. On the other hand, like Frankenstein’s Monster, I was dormant until I received a jolt of electricity.
Tuesday night about 8:30 a wind storm of short duration but massive power–they actually had a tornado touch down about two towns to the north–hit Chicago’s northwest suburbs, where I reside. I got a good earful of it, living as I do in a house trailer. The power also immediately went out.
To my chagrin, it was still out the next morning when I work very early. With no power and nothing to do, I headed into work early, figuring to grab a bite on the way in. Only then did I realize that it wasn’t just my street that lacked power, but a rather sizable area. All the street lights were out between my house and work (and a few major ones were still out as of this morning, three days later), and breakfast was not to be found, due to a general lack of power.
No power at the library, either. We hung around a while, before getting work that the entire local grid was down and that power could be out for two to three more days. We were sent home around noon, and eventually told to return the next day (yesterday) to see if we would have power for a 1:00 in the afternoon opening.
My power at home never did come back on either Wednesday night or Thursday morning, so I took a flier and went into work about 10:30, and yeah, finally, we had power at work. (No Internet, though.) After work I headed to my brother’s to see my mom before she headed back to Kentucky tomorrow, and when I got home late I finally did have power.
So in the end all is well. I had maybe ten dollars worth of food in the fridge to toss, but that was about it. I hope everyone did remember to check out the slate of giant monster movies TCM ran last night.
We have lots of fairly old trees in this neck of the woods, two or three stories high or more, and I’ve seen lots of shattered limbs (some as big as trees themselves) the last few days. Once that wreckage is taken care of, though, that should be the end of it.
I’m out for a birthday party tonight, but as I’ve been out or hanging out with folks for four of the five nights this week (and sitting in the dark the other), which is like a normal month’s worth of socializing for me, I’m looking forward to getting home late tonight and barring for door for a weekend’s worth of Howard Hughesing. Hopefully things will remain up and I can get some writing done.
Hopefully everyone else is well, and it’s good to be back.
