Freak Stormnado

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks! You sulphurous and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world! Crack nature's molds, all germens spill at once That make ingrateful man! Shakespeare, King Lear, III.ii.

I'm sure you guys have been wondering why I haven't blogged or commented on your delightful comments. Simple. We had a freak storm yesterday, Tuesday (I guess now technically day before yesterday), which blew out everything. No phone, no TV, no internet, and most of all... no warning!

It was a beautiful, obnoxiously hot day, around 100+°F (~36°C). I was sitting outside with the laptop, working on an etext of John Ford's play 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (how much do you love that title!) Everything went quiet, and Wilbur was telling me to come inside, so I did. Right then, a gale wind blew out of nowhere, and the sky went very dark, green at the edges. Freaky. Then lightning and thunder started. Okay, UNIVERSE! I distinctly said "no lightning bolts!!"

I quickly turned off the laptop, and dogs and I ran into the basement armed with candles.  Now, keep in mind that the basement still stinks to high heaven, courtesy of the moldy carpet. I managed to get a hold of Andy, who told me that the winds outside were 60 mph. The sound was unbelievable. It went on for a good 45 minutes, and then it was over, as if it had never been. I was freaked out and exhausted. After ascertaining that the house was still in one piece (thank goodness, since, as I mentioned, no home insurance a.t.m), I just went to bed, leaving all other exploring for morning.

Today, I woke up to find no internet, no tv, no phone, but very luckily, I had power. Most of you know that without my morning coffee, I'm "a bear shot in the ass," as we so eloquently say in Finland. The house was in one piece, but huge trees had fallen everywhere. Both mine, and my neighbor Beverly's, back fence is demolished — huge elm and oak trees lie splintered all across our back yards, and there were branches and leaves everywhere. We were fortunate that neither of us suffered physical or material harm. The trees fell on our yards from the farm behind us, whose responsibility it will be to get the trees removed and the fences repaired. A good thing, because the labor alone will go into the thousands. Ridiculous, how much people charge, but such is the world. We had a guy from the farm (which also houses a swim club) come survey the damage, and he said they'd take care of it. I hope he means what he says and Beverly and I don't end up having to go to court. Hell, at my current state, I can't afford to have anyone come remove one tree limb, let alone huge-ass trees.

Internet access, tv, and phone were restored just now. I went over to Andy's house to watch "Project Runway", so at least I wasn't deprived of my guilty pleasure. And I suppose the silver lining in the loss of internet was that I got a lot of stuff done, since I wasn't puttering around with Renaissance drama. I removed some more carpet in the Basement of Doom, and started refinishing a dresser I intend to sell on eBay. Fun, fun!

I've loved all your comments in the past few days, ladies, gentlemen, pirates, rogues, wenches, et al. Also thank you kindly for the offers of chocolate — virtual, melted, delayed or 'Godotful' — I did take the liberty of going out and buying some, as well as a bag of Double Stuf^® Oreos^®, which I have proceeded to demolish at an impressive rate, even for me.

I'm nackered, so I am off to Bedfordshire. Tah-tah for now. ~A