We had something that seemed akin to a hurricane that blew through our area last night around 7-ish, and knocked out the power to our house. I waited about 5 minutes, and then I called in the outtage to the power company, and then Leo and I settled in to watch Team America on a 2 inch iPod screen with the amazing sound afforded us by the Bose docking station I bought for him for Christmas two years ago. (Srsly, worth
every penny.)
My neighbor called at about 8:30 to see if we were out like he was, and I told him we were, and we were considering running an extension cord from the neighbors across the street because, as usual, they still had power while we did not. Fucking stupid grid. (They NEVER lose power, no matter what is going on. I hate them a little bit for that reason.) He had gone to the Record Bar to watch a band, but was unable to get in, so he was on his way home when the hurricane-type thingy hit. He told me a HUGE tree was down over on Nall between 71st and 72nd. I figured that might've been the culprit for our outtage, and hoped that once they cleared it, they'd get the power back on.
The power was still out at bedtime, so I called in the outtage again, and tried to get an idea of what time they expected it to be back on again, but they either stopped providing that kind of info, or they only do it in winter with ice storm outtages, because they just said they'd have it back up as soon as possible. And then I settled in for an attempt at a very hot sleep. Fortunately, some relatively cool breezes blew in after the storm moved on, and with the windows open, it was tolerable. I still didn't sleep well because I need it to be COLD for me to sleep, but I tried.
I was woken out of a sound slumber at about 12:40 a.m. by the power coming back on...oh glory be! I was so excited! And then we quickly heard a POP, and saw a flash-fla-fla-flash!, and the power was gone again. Shit...a transformer had blown, and it was close. Goddammit! I called in the outtage yet again, in case the power company thought they had restored the power successfully and were planning on moving on. (I know, they probably already knew what was up, but it makes my brain rest easier when I do shit like that, ok?)
At about 3, one of our neighbors, for some unknown, un
godly reason, decided to let one of her dogs out in the yard. Apparently, the dog was none too happy about this decision, and it was high-pitch bark/whining at her at the highest volume level its lungs would allow. Of course, as our windows were all WIDE OPEN, we could hear everything that was going on as though it were in the room with us, and this caused Jake and Izzy to bark as well, naturally. I could hear her scolding the dog as it barked back at her, and I yelled "SHUT UUUUPP!" a couple of times, but she must not've heard me over the racket her dog was producing, because she left it the fuck out there, and went inside. That dog continued on like that for another
twennnty-fiiive minutes. And if you think she isn't getting a strongly-worded letter from me on behalf of her surrounding neighbors later today, you would be mistaken. Although that was pretty solid proof to me that she is, indeed, a total fucking moron, I'm going to try to help her understand what a dope she is for what she did, and warn her that in the future, I have her address, and will not hesitate to contact the police to report her for breaking the noise ordinance in our neighborhood. Fucking idiot.
At about 4 a.m., I was still up tossing and turning. I heard a truck idling nearby, and then saw flashlights bobbing about out in the yards. I went out to see what was up, and chatted with a couple of power company guys that were looking for the cause of the breakdown after they got the emergency power back up and running at 12:40 a.m. I told them what we'd seen and heard from our room, and they continued on looking for the culprit. Seems they believed a branch had fallen on a line, and it took the surge from the emergency power for it to shut down it's local transformer. They figured one had blown, but they didn't seem too pleased when I confirmed that by telling them what we'd seen and heard at 12:40-ish. I thanked them for what they were doing, and went back inside to get more rest.
And the power is still out this morning, so I shut the house up, took the dogs to daycare, and came to work to revel in the power and AC. I look
super-pretty, as it is just a wonderful experience to put on makeup by the light of the glow from the rising sun in the east in the morning, as I attempt to stop myself from sweating in the ever-increasing heat of the day. It was only a sultry 76 degrees in the house when I left, but it felt warmer than that in some rooms, and seemed to make my morning shower a completely useless task to have undertaken. I guess I can hope that, even though I may be sweaty, at least it's pretty-smelling sweatiness. ::sigh::
Now I'm off to read the news on what exactly that was that blew through last night. There's a car down the street from us that was completely covered by a tree. Limbs are everywhere. We have some relatively slight tree damage, comparatively, so I'm glad for that. Hope everyone else in the metro fared as well!
