Friday, August 03, 2012

Dawg Days

Wednesday we enjoyed a wonderful thunderstorm, and then lost power...for over 18 hours. I suppose lots of trees came down on the power lines, and it took longer than  usual to restore everyone's electricity, cable and phone landlines. We camped out in the shade of the porch and waited.
I knit, napped and read my mystery book (The Fifth Witness by Michael Connolly), Dave did garage things, and ran back and forth to the Dollar store in the next town, for parts. He returned with the news that the amount of damage may take three days for power to return. Ugh.
Lucky for us, the temps were mild, under 90 degrees and there was a nice breeze for most of the day.
We decided that we would have to sleep outside and got our lawn chairs ready, with flashlights, and the radio plugged into an extension cord attached to the converter box in the truck.
The ice cream in the freezer was starting to melt so we HAD to eat big bowls of it for dinner. Doesn't it all sound like fun?
NOT!
Our water pump is electric, so no running water, with all the dirty dishes, and dirty bodies in desperate need of a wash. The worst was no flushing of the toilets. I will say no more.

Dave wanted to feel safe so he made barricades out of chaise lounges at the top of the stairs so the dawgs wouldn't leave the porch, and he had an ax handle at the ready, in case of intruders. Who would intrude? With no power anywhere on the mountain, and just the moonbeams for light, we only needed protection from bugs! Speaking of bugs, the pond sounds were deafening and just as we settled in, the lights popped back on and relief spread all over me.
I washed my hands and face immediately and went right for my laptop. (Had to wait for the hot water to shower...)
Judging from my emails, life went on perfectly fine without us...hmmm. I was planning on going to my sister's house in Chattanooga first thing this morning for a shower, but she still wasn't home from her Florida vacation when I finally reached her. Of course I didn't need to make this trip.
Y'know, we did discover how much we enjoyed doing almost nothing, together. The dawgs are pretty entertaining, and I think I could get used to having a day without my laptop....WHAT AM I SAYING????
For. get. it.
OMG the lights just went out again for a few seconds. EEeeek!
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I have collected all the July paintings into one page here. It's good to see all of them at once, and to have an easy reference for size and mediums. And now onto August's work.


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5 comments:

  1. OMG... don't know if I could go that long without electricity, 'specially since hubby is on insulin which must stay cold! And we would both melt away without our computers! At least you had your knitting... hope all stays up and running today.

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  2. I love my memories of no electricity with the family. Okay, not the hot sticky part. It forced us to slow down and visit.

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  3. Mel, much as I love your paintings, it's your quilts that have me drooling... Your house sets them off so perfectly too. Rose is one very lucky gal! Have fun together.

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  4. I totally empathize with you. We have had no rain, no wind, no storms and yet, our street has lost power twice in the last two days....first for 2 hours and then for almost 6. Very unpleasant and no explanation of why. We're hoping today will be better!

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  5. No electricity is doable but no water? Is there a way to make your pump electric or manual? I don't know, just asking.

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