Blowing in the Wind

Monday morning arrived with a bang, followed by a rain surge that rattled the rooftops. Although the rules say stay indoors, I rolled out of bed and ran to the front door -- branches blocked the sidewalk. Then the wind shifted, and the eerie wail of storm sirens echoed through the storm-tossed trees. Joy and I waited until they died away ... yes, we should have headed for the safe room, but which cats to save -- and the birdcages won't fit. As we did in '94 when an F-4 tornado ripped through Lancaster, we waited out the storm.

At first, we figured a tree was down -- we had phone and power -- but when the sun rose, we could see that there was a power line down. Now the merry-go-round of when can the repair people arrive and who will pay began. Right now, we're paying since it'll take another 2-3 days before an insurance adjustor can come out. With a hot power line and rain predictions, we can't wait. The only reason the lightning strike didn't cause a fire was the burst of rain that drowned out any sparks.

So, I went off to teach while Joy began the calls. Oncor -- the power carrier -- is horrible. I don't care about all the electricity companies with their promises. The minute they say that the carrier remains Oncor, I know that there will be trouble down the road ... There is no competition, as far as I know, for the carriers, only the providers. Talk about a monopoly. As you can guess, I was running on adrenaline. (The hit happened around 2 AM, and we stayed awake until the worst of the storm passed around 3.) Luckily, since we had power, I created a quick emergency lesson and moved on.

The storm pix aren't coming in, so you'll have to use your imagination ... Imagine having to jump off the porch and plow through waist-high box shrubs in order to reach the car. That was me on Monday morning -- the tree branches were that dense!