blackout

at the moment, around 05:30 hours, saturday 23 july, i'm writing in apple's textedit program because the internet is out.

up until about midnight, the power was out -- and had been for about four hours. i suspect we got off lucky.

this stormy summer, while the area has experienced numerous blackouts -- some lasting for days -- we've made it through with nary a flicker.

our number came up last night. and, of course, it was only fitting that it happen on an evening when we were expecting company.

luckily, kris was making a simple meal of pizza and the last, lurching surges of electricity continued just long enough for her to finish the toppings.

the thunderstorm announced itself for about half an hour with deep rumbles.

when it finally arrived, it was with fat, heavy drops, and then buckets of rain with explosive cracks of lightning that seemed like they were just above the treetops.

then it just parked itself on top of us. i began thinking about the great red spot on jupiter.

i can't say i can remember such a heavy and sustained downpour here in a long, long time.

the boy was getting antsy because it was near his bedtime, but i was able to keep him occupied watching the windows get streaked and splashed with the torrent spilling down from the roof.

i was pleased and impressed that the thunder didn't seem to faze him. with every boom, i expected a frightened cry, but he carried on as usual, even as i was putting him to bed.

by that time, we had no power, so i closed the door to his room to enter a house now heated by a gas oven with windows shut and no air conditioning.

i grew apprehensive at the thought of adding two more warm bodies to the mix with the oppressive humidity we'd been smothered with this week waiting to spread inside.

while the pizzas cooked, i drank a guinness that had been waiting in the fridge and sent out an all-points electricity check to a few friends in various parts of the city.

west side out. fort hill out. corridor g ok. my east end friends' numbers were in my other phone and i couldn't remember if my kanawha city friends were in town.

by its end, the storm mercifully took a lot of the moisture out of the air, so when our friends heidi and jamie arrived right around dusk, we were able to open windows and get a nice crosswind.

(coming in from huntington, there were half a mile from the exit, when they were stuck by flooding on the interstate. people actually backed up their cars from the rising water. jamie said a couple of guys got out of their cars to clear the culverts of debris and allow the roads to drain.)

the visit itself was quite nice. there was muted chat and lots of low laughs by candlelight. they'd kindly brought beer and heidi had made a chocolate cake from scratch, which was amazing in its dense richness.

and the pizzas rocked.

i can't remember a summer as stormy as this. i wonder if this is part of the climate change we've been warned about and if this is something we're going to have to get used to.