Yesterday a strong thunderstorm hit our area. It was a beautiful storm to watch from my office window, lots of thunder, lightning, and rain against a dark afternoon sky. It brought with it a brief period of cooler, less humid weather in the sweltering swamp that is DC. Anyway, as I discovered on my way home from work, the storm also managed to knock down trees and branches in our area thus knocking out power to our entire neighborhood including the traffic light on our street. Thankfully it was only the last three lights on a not horribly busy street that were out and the lights at all the major intersections were up and running. Arlington county did a fantastic job of clearing branches from major streets as quickly as possible in spite of more storms and rain on the way, so thankfully again, I didn't face any issues with those on my way home either. (Go Arlington safety, maintenance, and emergency personnel! Your Rock!) However, I did arrive home to a pitch black parking garage. I was thinking wow, that's kind of cool as I drove into the deep, dark, pitch black cave, but was glad that I had my Mom phone, so that as I walked to the stairs and climbed them in the dark by the light of my headlights and my cell phone. I think my comment to her was, "If you hear me scream, hang up and call Greg." She and I then proceed to discuss whether her best action would be to call Greg or 911, and we decided that Greg could call local people faster, so I was probably right, but either course would work. Yeah, we went there, but thankfully it was all theoretical, and I walked up the stairs safely, saying bye to my Mom in preparation for greeting a very not happy kitty cat. Our apartment was still cool and was dim thanks to blinds and curtains being closed. Freyja was sitting right behind the door ready to be picked up and held. While our brave little cat thankfully no longer hides under the bed when the thunder rumbles, she still doesn't like thunderstorms much. After I calmed her down and realized that we had no power, I called Greg and gave him a heads up. Then, as Greg was on his way home, Freyja and I went out on the balcony to watch the storm and to wait for Greg. It was beautiful to watch the lightning and listen to the thunder. Freyja trembled a little but didn't want to go inside when I put her down with that option. Rather, she sat on the table the Greg's Great Uncle Jerry had built and looked out. When she had enough of that she wanted held up on my shoulder where she could still see out until she calmed down and was ready to explore again. We went through a few cycles of this in the fifteen minutes we were out on our balcony, but at the end of that time when Greg's shuttle arrived, she was so intent on exploring that I had to chase her around our plants to be able to pick her up for Greg to see her waiting for him. After Greg got inside and dried off from the rain, he did a double check that he didn't need to log in again for work, and we decided to go out for dinner. It was our date night for the week. I had planned that we would cook together, making a lovely pasta dinner with fresh broccoli and ending with fresh blueberries and sweet cream. Instead, we went to TGI Friday's for burgers as it's hard to cook on an electric stove without electricity. Friday's was packed due to a Pirate themed festival they were hosting as well as all the other like us who were seeking a warm meal somewhere with working AC. We enjoyed ourselves, especially sitting at that table with a life-sized Spock cutout looking over us, and talked. Then we headed back home. Our neighborhood still didn't have power, so we debated going out again to see a movie or finding something to do in that didn't require a lot of bright light. So being the responsible married couple we are, we decided to play at home by candlelight. Now for those of you who bemoan our lack of romantic date nights, I give you the candle light, including four lanterns from our wedding reception.  For those of you with dirty minds, I'll point out that we decided to save money by staying home and playing cards, specifically Cribbage. It was fun. I won, which is only fair as Greg kicked my tushie at Risk the last 5 times we played.  We even thought to take pictures of the beautiful candle reflections to share. (Don't forget that you need to log in to view our photo galleries.) In the end, we had a nice though slightly warm evening. We woke up this morning when the battery back-up on our alarm clock went off a hour before our usually set alarm. We still didn't have power, but couldn't get back to sleep, so we took our time getting ready in the dark of our windowless bathroom and headed to work. Poor Greg even experienced how to shave by candlelight. Greg and I are getting pretty good at this date night off the cuff thing. =) |
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