In the Dark (and a Clarification)

Tuesday evening started innocently enough. I went home from work, and immediately ran upstairs to the home office to hammer out some invoices for my night job. Kim yelled for me to come down to dinner a little before 7, and we sat down for a light dinner - as I had a hoops game scheduled at 9pm against some ex-teammates (and the league's defending champs). Shortly after we began eating I heard a noise outside. It sounded like thunder. I looked out the window to the west to see a nasty-looking black sky headed our way. I didn't know we were expecting a storm, so I ran upstairs and turned off everything in the office. Before I could get out of the room, I heard a strange noise from out back, and then a crash. I looked out the window to see the tree line out back bending to an out-of-nowhere rushing wind.

I ran downstairs and outback to investigate and noticed that I needed to secure the grill cover. Before I could finish the job, the wind shifted direction and was blowing in my face. I looked up to see a giant clump of tree parts flying at my head. I ducked and it landed with a thud inches from my feet. The securing of the grill cover no longer seemed all that important and I high-tailed it into the house.

Once inside, it might have been all of 15 seconds before the power went out. It was the first time that I can remember the power going out before the thunder, lightning and rain began. The main part of the storm lasted approximately 45 minutes, and the rain and lightning continued well into the night. Once the winds died down we and the neighbors sauntered out back to survey the damage. The thunk and crash noise combination was a tree breaking and spiking through our shed out back. When you open the shed door, it looks as though a tree grew from the ground straight through the ceiling. The back yard was a complete mess with tree limbs and unsecured yard items strewn all over the place. Luckily, no one was hurt, and none of the trees crashed directly onto the houses.

Have you ever gotten a present from someone that upon receipt, you find yourself scratching your head and/or laughing? A couple of years ago Kim's Grandmom gave me a battery-powered flourescent light lantern. It took me a couple of years to realize the value of this gift, but I will be giving her a huge hug next time we see her. I also got a grill light/radio combo for Christmas that came into good use on Tuesday night. The first hour of no power (post-storm) was fun. We spent time with a few of the neighbors, drank a beer (less it get skunked) and marveled at the power of nature - the residual cross-sky lightning that kept up for a few hours after the main storm was spectacular. After the novelty wore off, things began to get boring. And warm. Thankfully, the storm front significantly lowered the near-100 degree temperature. As our living room was the brightest on the block, lesser-prepared neighbors came by throughout the evening to borrow matches and candles. We are pretty good neighbors. I did not make my game that night (the game I was looking forward to most all season), and reports from teammates suggest that my presence probably would have altered the outcome (a loss). I feel bad about letting my teammates down, but I couldn't leave Kim and Zachary to deal with the storm aftermath alone.

In my last entry I ripped fughezi fans who bandwagon-jump to front-running teams from other cities when things on the home front are bleak. Apparently I have hurt the feelings of some friends who are fans of out-of-town teams, and I can legitimately say that some of these guys ARE true fans of these teams. They have shown their loyalty to these franchises when they were just as bad (or worse) than their Philly-based counterparts. Some of these people have family from the regions where their favorite teams are based, and others have loved these teams since their youth after falling in love with their helmets (I always wanted one of the old-school Orioles caps when I was a kid, but never openly rooted for them - but I digress). Bennie Mac has been a Red Sox guy long before their recent resurgence; E-Dog a Chargers fan through some of the worst seasons ever; Franny T. a Patriots nut long before their Super Bowl runs. I know Maert has been a Cowboys guy since he was a kid, but I do not know the origin of his loyalties to that franchise... So, my apologies to anyone who was hurt by my anti-bandwagon-jumping-vermin diatribe from yesterday - at least those of you who are true fans of your out-of-town teams. To the rest of you to whom the description fits, sorry if the truth hurts. I hope we can still be friends.

[Currently Listening: Fabulous Thunderbirds - "Tough Enough"]