by backhoe » 07/ 12/ 10 5:58 am
The Lightning Storm
Well, my Little One,
We had some excitement last night-- another night “since you went away...”
I spent part of the evening watching the clouds roll in-- on the front porch, with the dogs in the yard, praying to you and to God with the usual stuff-
( “Let her be OK, let even Helen be... not in a bad place, but running and standing again, help me get thru another day... let my babies be OK, and just by the way, why did all this stuff happen? )
I got 'em in, and we started settling down for the night... and all Hell broke loose...
Rain, wind... fire from the sky...
You know how spooky old Zoey is-- loud noises like thunder used to make her stand, and tremble uncontrollably? Until we let her come in to out quarters here, and sleep on the sofa?
Well, she slept on the couch-- but Cole the Golden One followed me around as I checked for leaks ( the roof was fine, but the windows still need work-- funny, I thought I had fixed the ones downstairs... _
Then, there was a “boom!”
And the lights flickered... another “bang!” and the power went out...
I had the wits to shut down my computer ( so I wouldn't lose my places in email, your facebook wall, and here, where out kind hosts are putting up with my scribblings... ) but damnifIknow how to close that blasted netbook of yours-- I shut the case, and hoped the battery would keep it running in doze mode before it lost power and lost “your” places on the 'net I had it monitoring...
That standby light we got for your Mom- the one I brought here after she died-- came on, so the “bedroom” downstairs where we all were, had some light, but everywhere else was dark, so I started stirring around, looking for battery- powered ( remember “bat-tree?” That's how us Southroners say “battery...” ) lights...
The two Coleman lanterns I got for you-- you were always so scared of the dark-- hanging near my PC had enough juice in them to use, so I lit them and hung them on the hooks I put in the doorways so you could see to get around...
Zoey still slept, Cole kept getting, Taffy-like, under my feet...
I figured I'd better call Georgia Power, and try to get them to restore power-- the lights weren't too much of a problem, but the heat? Zoey was already panting in her sleep and it would only get worse without the A/C on.
Phone book? Where is the damn thing? Find it, call the number...
It's voice mail, dammit, and they want numbers ( Social security, account number... ) that I don't have handy... scurry about, grabbing old bills and tax returns, and the damnable thing squawks, “ You gave an invalid number! Thank you for calling... click!”
So I get all the numbers in a pile on the breakfast table-- with a flashlight in the growing dark-- and call the back, go thru all the damn numbers ( ever try to read a cell phone screen in the half-dark with a flashlite? Shore ain't easy... ) and finally get a human being...
I explain the situation-- why “your” telephone number isn't the one I'm using ( she's dead-- I'll change it next billing cycle ), why I need the power restored ( I've got a 17 year old dog who's scared of the dark ) and she tells me “power will be restored before 10:00 O'clock It's about 8... )
I thank her, and begin more stirring around-- set LED flashlights so the dogs can see to get around ( like I used to do for you, my nearly blind baby, when the power went out ), remember the damn flat roof upstairs ( Good God! It is so hot up there with the fan still-- but the UPS for the fallback computer is squawking loudly, “Beep... Blat! Beep!” ) and check it, and the windows that leaked so badly during the last squall...
You helped me bail out the upstairs, then... Jesus, that seems so long ago...
It's all OK, but I raise my fist to the overhead, and say something along the lines of,
“God!
Emily!
Don't you dare let this little bastard spring a leak! I can't get up there anymore to patch it, and I've got more than I can handle right now!”
The roof and windows hold-- with the UPS squawking in the background-- but it's still too hot downstairs.
I briefly toy with the idea of cranking one of the two generators on the porch-- the big one I built for you, the little on we got for your Momma, so her deep freezer would have power-- but I remember I gave our last spare can of gas to the neighbor across the street when she ran out, so I decide to wait it out...
Wait... and while we are all OK-- albeit a little hot, it occurs to me that I had better catch a shower before the hot water in the heater cools off-- I've been sweating like a stevedore in the heat all day-- been thru 3 or 4 shirts already... so I make my way, once more up those long and winding stairs...
How do you shower by flashlite? Flip in over, stick it in the sink so it shines up on the overhead, and you have Indirect Lighting-- of a sort.
Good enough to get around, but not see well.
I clean up-- with the backup PC's UPS still squawking as accompaniment-- and go downstairs.
Check the temp of the outside air versus where us critters are--- it's still cooler in the bedroom. So I decide to leave the doors closed.
Wait... get a “headlite”-- one of those strapon things I use for looking in tight places-- so I can read. I remember getting you quite a few booklites to help you read, but damn if I can find them.
There's a “purse light” in your sad nightstand-- I remember how proud you were of it, it came with that expensive purse you got recently- what is it doing, in there?-- and several booklites in the cabinet in the kitchen, but I figure the headlite will be more useful, since it points where I point my head...
Then the power comes back...
Mad rush to turn on all three A/C's-- power bills! But the old girl is panting...
Turn off all the battery-powered stuff... did I get it all? Make notes to buy more lanterns, and batteries.
Run around the house-- Miss Emily's, not mine-- to recheck everything... all OK, just “missing you...”
Get The Wind Machine off the front porch, and direct it to blow cool air over the Old Goat for a while, and damnif it doesn't cool her, quickly-- I just learned something new.
Pour a stiff drink, settle down with my puppies, and start reading that “last book” you gave me, since “you went away...”
Normally, I finish a book in a few days-- used to be a few hours, when I was young, and fast, and could see well-- but this one has stretched out a month and more, and I am about a third of the way thru it.
I kind of don't, want, to finish it... since it was the last thing you gave me...
Maybe I'll set it aside, with that stack of books you never got to, and take it upstairs, and place it with all your “stuff...”
Because nobody- except you or I-- will know, understand, or care anymore, about such things...
i
miss
you
Kid....
“...and I straighten
Miss Emily's picture
on the Wall...”
Minor Footnotes to this story?
1)- Offer the Thompsons across the street that smaller generator- I saw them peering out of their dark house, and I sure don't need two of the things...
2)- Get the electric lantern from Lucy's-- she won't be using it, and I can...
3)- The “new austerity” we are implementing is fine, but today I need to drive places & get things...
-30-
Just a Merry-Hearted Keyboard PirateBoy, Plunderin' his way across the Internet....
