When we lose power, the computers are down, the Internet is down, the answering machine doesn't work and the dogs are restless. You can still take a shower and wash the dishes because we've got a gas water heater, but that's about it. The house is so dark without electricity that I went out several years ago and bought several fluorescent camping lanterns. These lanterns are surprisingly bright and usually allow me to read or get a little work done with a pad and paper. Not this year. We store the lights outside on the porch in a big hamper with the leaf blowers and other garden tools. When I went to get the lanterns, I discovered that rain had gotten into the box and the lanterns were sitting in several inches of water. This wasn't water from today's rain either. It was brownish standing water from a long time ago. The batteries were a rusty, gooey mess and none of the lamps worked. Since there wasn't much else I could do anyway, I spent the next several hours trying to remove the rust and battery acid from the lanterns and get them working again. When I finally got the lights functioning, the power came back on.
It's a good thing we have electricity again too, because I think I used up all the clean bath towels drying off wet dogs today. Before I went to Northpark to get my hair cut, I took advantage of a brief break in the stormy weather to walk the dogs. Both Dot and Dash absolutely refuse to do their business in the yard when it rains and grow increasingly frantic when it becomes apparent that I can't make the rain stop. I'm sure they think I control the rain, just like I can open doors and turn on light switches. I've learned to check the weather radar frequently on days like this to find little windows of time when I can get the dogs out to their favorite places to pee. Since there was no electricity today, I ran the battery down on my iPad checking the weather radar. I didn't have enough power left to check my e-mail, but the dogs did get to do their business.
I thought we sere home free on the way home from our walk, because I saw the sun starting to peek through the clouds a bit. That certainly didn't last long. As soon as we got back to the house, I started hearing the emergency sirens going off all over the neighborhood. I turned on the radio and discovered there was a tornado headed our way. I gathered the dogs together and we waited out the storm in the one little hallway that might have a chance of surviving a tornado. Glass houses and storms aren't usually a good mix. The tornado actually did touch down in several parts of town, but luckily the wall cloud veered off and headed north before it got to our house.
Everything is back to normal now. We've got electricity. The rain has stopped. I'm a little behind on my website work, but I do have two working storm lanterns.
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