Yesterday's Big Storm

I guess the title says it all....

Yesterday Central Illinois got bit** slapped by Mother Nature. Williamsville was badly slammed (I hope that my relatives that live there are okay; I haven't heard otherwise), as were a few other towns. During the brunt of the storm I was in town helping to prepare for a birthday party.

After the festivities I climbed into the van and headed home. The turn that I normally take was blocked by four or five trucks with flashing lights...the brave men and women of Corn Belt were working on the poles, lines, and transformers that were hit. I had to go around the country block and creep along the back roads in order to get home.

There was a pretty good size branch in the driveway, so I had to climb out of the van and pull it out of the way. My headlights illuminated more branches and tons of leaf debris, but I was able to drive the rest of the way up our long driveway.

After rounding up a flashlight, four candles, and my tap-on light, I settled on the couch with my new garden catalog. I can't believe how quiet it is without electricity! The normal white noise of a running refrigerator, the hum of the air conditioner, and even the steady buzz of the computer were sorely missed...I'm much too used to background noises.

I also noticed how much darker it was without electricity. Sounds silly, doesn't it? I went around the room today and found all of the lights that remain on even after I turn off the overhead and lamps.
1. phone has a light
2. answering machine light
3. power strip light
4. 2 lights on the VCR/DVD combo
5. 3 lights on the computer tower
6. one light on the monitor
7. another power strip with a light
8. speaker light
No wonder it looks really spooky when the electricity is off! What did we do BEFORE electricity?

I walked around in the daylight hours and found that the wind had been very mischievous indeed. It blew the bench and pouty doll (Bryan calls it his "Bryan's Bad Guy") from the front porch, the kid's swing got blown over, and my tomato plants in their cages were all blown over. I found one garbage can at the edge of the woods on the east side of the yard and another in the front near the neighbor's house. Before I mowed tonight I picked up armloads of branches wrist-size and smaller (enough to have another cookout!) The biggest surprise concerned the double gate in the back. Somehow the wind picked the gate up off of the hinges and, while the gate was still locked in the center, placed it down in one piece. Max was able to fix it before the dogs got out.

I hope that everyone else survived the storms with a minimum amount of damage.

shel