September 3 -- no power

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On the 3rd, my better half went to play golf about 15 minutes west of Ann Arbor, and our daughter worked 2-10pm.

The University of Michigan's first home football game of the season was played on the 3rd.  I carefully scheduled the usual Saturday errands to avoid dealing with football traffic.

When I came out of the library, there was plenty of blue sky, but the clouds looked large and potentially serious, and I heard a rumble or two of thunder.

We go to Busch's on Saturdays, for Calder milk and Zingerman's bread (which is a lot cheaper at Busch's than at Zingerman's). Busch's on Main Street is less than a mile almost due south of Michigan Stadium. You can usually hear the stadium's announcers and the roar of the crowd from Busch's parking lot.

When I came out of Busch's, I noticed that there were sprinkles of rain on the car.

The route home begins up Main Street, and takes us within sight of the stadium.

There were a lot of people leaving the stadium, which seemed odd, as the game was less than two hours old.

As I got closer to the stadium, I saw that the people in maize and blue, walking away toward their cars and homes, were DRENCHED. Not damp, not wet, but ... so wet they couldn't have been wetter.

I learned later that the game had been delayed, and finally, canceled, due to the weather.

So odd, when our car, parked under the sky, less than a mile away, had only drops here and there!

As I drove north and west toward home, it was clear that there had been a lot of rain. Mist steamed up from the hot roads, and car tires kicked up considerable spray. It was not raining then, and there was no wind.

Later, my ficus tree, which is enjoying its summer vacation on the patio, was knocked down, and there was more rain.

I finally shut down the computers -- there were just little dots of "weather" showing here and there on the radar; nothing sustained, but..........  We got bursts of wind and rain, and then it would be calm.

Given the amount of rain we had, and the thunder, and the fact that the golfers were just a short distance due west, I was surprised that they didn't come home, but thought maybe they were out for dinner........

At about 7:40 I put on water for pasta.  Just after that, it started to rain again.

At about 7:50, my better half came home. While he was still putting away his clubs, the power went out.

This didn't affect the heat under the pasta water, as the stove is gas.

I yelled out through the wind and rain to see if he wanted me to put in enough pasta for him as well as for me. He did.

We've used the stove when we had no power. Many times.

Cooking in the dark, though -- that was a first.............. (Interesting how I can see much better in low light than the camera can see....)

As the Geico gecko might say:  "Of course this is a total dramatization, but you know what I mean."  I was too busy, on the 3rd, trying to cook in the dark to think of taking pics.  This pic was taken later, on a day when I turned off all the lights in order to approximate the conditions on the 3rd.

That dark and stormy (and powerless) night, there was enough light coming in through the windows that putting spaghetti in the water wasn't an issue. 

Stirring -- no problem.

I did have my better half hold the flashlight for me, when it was time to drain the pasta, and when I poured on the olive oil.

It was very helpful to have light when it was time to stab the broccoli to see if it was done. I couldn't see the broccoli in the pot, and was randomly stabbing, getting nothing at least as often as I got the broccoli, and when I got broccoli, it was as likely to be the buds, which I don't worry about, as to be the stems, which is what I was trying to test............

There was enough light coming in through the windows to let us to see to eat.

I could surely see how *some* useful vision is WAY better than none.  It was possible to navigate, and eat, in very low light.....



Compared to the horrors many people have suffered this year, being without power for 40 hours is a minor inconvenience.  We had running hot and cold water, we could cook, we could run out for ice.  We could go to work and check email.

I'm glad it wasn't winter -- we'd have had to move to a motel, and then worry about frozen pipes at home.

It was hot on the 3rd, and the sleeping that night was ... sweaty.  But it cooled off on the 4th, and sleeping that night was fine.


Another reason to be glad it wasn't winter is that there are so many more hours of daylight....

Very grateful to all the good people who work 24/7 to make sure that we have power almost all the time!

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