Out of the Eye of the Storm

Not much of a blog post today, I'm afraid.  Really, I'm just happy we have power and Internet.  Storms were extremely intense last night.

I attended a meeting of the Writer's Guild at OHC last night, As we were meeting, the winds picked up viciously, to the point of almost blowing the doors open.  We lost power for about 30 minutes, meeting stubbornly in the dark, as heavy rains fell outside.  By the time our meeting was over at 9, the rains had settled down enough to go outside.

Traveling back to Blackshear, about a twenty minute journey, was extremely surreal.  I had seen power outages before, but never in such a crazy quilt fashion.  Some stoplights were working, some were not.  And there seemed to be no real reason or pattern to it.  One had a cop directing traffic.  Another had stop signs in the street that someone must have quickly put up.  And others you were just completely on your own in getting through.

Some houses were blazing light,  Others, just a few houses down, were pitch dark.  Then it started over again.  There was no reasoning to it.

Alison had texted me during the meeting that our power at home was out, starting at about 8.  Talking to her on the way home, it was still out just after 9.  She and Benjamin had went to her father's, who only lives a couple of streets over and had full power.

Coming onto our street, I saw the crazy quilt continue, with houses on one side of the street with power, and houses on our side without,  I was wondering whether to take it personal.

Alison and Benjamin came back from PaPa's, and we made the best of it.  We ate a few of the leftover snack crackers that I had got for the meeting, and stayed in the living room by candlelight.  Georgia Power indicated that they would restore power to our area by 10:15.  10:15 came, and the message changed to TODAY.  We gave up and headed for bed.

Benjamin wanted to come back and sleep with us.  Well, that big old boy, now taller than both his parents, had long since passed the age where he could get in our bed.  So he prepared to sleep on the floor.  He let Cocoa Bear in, who was panting fiercely,  Benjamin was restless, constantly asking questions.  Fortunately, Benjamin decided to move on to the living room, as did Coca Bear.

We finally got power back at 1:50.  Alison needed to get up at 5:10, so she got very little sleep.  But we're all okay.  Some downed tree limbs, but no damage.  Benjamin feared it was the apocalypse, but we have survived.  And if it was the rapture, none of our family was taken (some may not be surprised by that).

I am concerned that my friend Kimberly reported there was a major car accident near her house, that eventually brought in eight ambulances. I have not heard more, but I pray everyone is all right.  The accident did not involve Kimberly or her family.

That's today's storm report!  Back to regularly scheduled blogs tomorrow.

New storms permitting, of course.