The Refugee

My tale of my recent tangle with Mother Nature...

A few nights ago, we had one of those severe New England summertime thunderstorms. The type precipitated by 95 degree heat and 100% humidity. Then suddenly, the skies grow dark and all hell breaks loose. I was walking to my car after work as the clouds rolled in. Luckily, I got in before the assault began.

I hate thunderstorms. I always have and always will. The ominous sound of the rumbling thunder, the giant bolts of high voltage electricity reigning down from the sky, hail the size of a Hostess cupcake. This is not an enjoyable experience for me.

It took me almost 40 minutes to drive the 8.6 miles home. The roads were pure anarchy…it was everyman for himself. As the bolts of lightning touched ground all around me, all I could think was “I am going to get struck by lightning and I don’t have insurance.”

When I finally made it home, I was greeted by complete and total darkness. This was when I learned that I do not own a flashlight. Thankfully I do have mass quantities of candles (leftover from all of my romantic evening interludes...or bridal showers)

Having spent 4 years working at the Electric Company, I often took outage calls from customers. Being on the recieving end and hearing "We have no estimated time when your power will be restored" is the last piece of inforamtion you want. But that is exactly what I got.

I realized just how much of an integral part of my life electricity is. I didn’t know what to do with myself in the dark. I gave myself a pedicure, I organized my photos and I tried reading by candlelight. Finally, I just succumbed to my natural instincts…I took a nap.

After my nap, I went out to dinner and then for a shopping excursion with Eboogie. I figured by the time I got home, the power would be back on.

Apparently I am an optimist.

Eboogie and I traipsed through the darkened hallways with my newly purchased flashlights. She turned to me and said “I will not allow you to sleep here alone tonight with no power. You are coming to sleep at my house.”

I protested for about half a second about how I am an adult and I can stay home alone if I want to in the dark before my overactive imagination got the best of me. I knew that within 10 minutes of sitting in the dark by myself, I would have concocted some sort of psycho killer scenario and completely freaked myself out. So I put down my head, packed a bag by the glow of my flashlight and headed home with my big sister to sleep in my old room.

Thankfully, the power was back the next day and I only had to throw away my container of feta cheese which was the only food in my fridge.

And now, I plan to start work on my ark completele with it's own generator so I will never find myself in the dark again.