THUNDERSTORMS!!!

I have lived in Texas since 1963. I have to say that the thunderstorms that rolled through the DFW area yesterday are the worst I have ever seen. I mean I thought I was back in Southern Illinois where as a kid I lived though bad storms and flooding. It all started on Wednesday night when storms rolled though the area. We really did not have much rain just mostly wind. When I woke up Thursday morning the clock was blinking meaning that during the rain and lightning in the middle of the night the power had gone off but was back on. Around 9am the power went off again. At least the coffee had been made. It was very, very dark. Thunder and lightening occured almost constantly and the rain just poured down. I opened the curtains in the living room and figured I would just knit. I mean there was nothing else to do and I was not going anywhere. It eventually was dark enough that knitting became a problem so I had to quit. I mean I can knit when it is fairly dark but this was too dark. The power came back on around 10am soI figured I could grab a quick shower before it might start raining again. I decided not dry my hair but just let it air dry since there was still thunder and lightning periodically. I had not gotten on the computer as I figured there was too much bad weather. I sat in the chair and turned on the TV thinking I would check the Weather Channel radar and see if there was more rain to come. I had watched some lightning not too far away, just a few streets over, and thought I really did not like it that close. I kid you not, just as the radar came on there was a, well what is a better word that ginormously huge, clap of lightning and thunder I swear right outside my kichen window inbetween my house and the neighbors house. EVERYTHING went out, everything. The TV made this sick sound and I mean it was scary, way too close. Rowdy, one of the dogs, came running around the house looking like what the he - - was that! Duke, the other dog, man I went for an hour thinking he might have gotten hit by lightning because I never saw him. He did show up later after the worst was over. I guess he had hid under the shed. I looked out the front door to see how it looked out there, thunder, lightning, rain, and in the mailbox was the mail. I am thinking that guy is an idiot! Thank you for delivering my mail, but are you insane!! It is lightening!! Right here!! I am thinking what do I do for lunch. It is the end of the week so the milk is gone and the bread is dried out and there is no power to even warm up soup. I munch on comfort food, Nacho Cheese Doritos, and think maybe in a bit the power will come on and I will zap some leftover chicken in the microwave. At noon there is no power but I hear the trashmen collecting the trash. I have no idea if anyone else has power or who might be home at this particular time. I decide that since the rain is letting up I will call the electric company and report the power outage just in case. At 3pm my trust of all things computerized is telling me that even though you report stuff to "a computerized voice" that really you should never actually trust computers. Of course you punch in all the numbers, I mean if you do not have an account number you can even put in your driver's license or, get this, your social security number!! Ok, I digress. I am sick and tired of this number that we are supposed to protect and not let anyone have....blah, blah, blah...is always used to identify us, on computers, on the phone, for insurance, argh!!! Fortunately I had the account number but of course the phone number did not match, I am on my cell phone, the account number did not match the address...you really do not want me to go here... I just think the heck with this. Well, by 4pm and still no power I am thinking I know they have a gazillion people that the power is out on but I wonder if our block has been reported. I called the power company again, I mean what else do I have to do but talk on the phone and knit. For some reason I got connected to a REAL PERSON. It was wonderful, I just hate that we don't get to talk to real people because it is more efficient for companies to have us talking to their computers. The "Power Girl" said they were working triple time and that it would be up as soon as possible but the storm had made a big mess here in the area. I just said thanks. That I wanted to make sure it was reported. Intestingly it took her several tries to find the account. At about 5pm it started to get dark again and I am thinking if it starts to rain Iwon't be able to see to knit. I ran to Sonic and got something to eat. At this point I saw a neighbor and he said that everyone on our block had no power but weirdly the street right beside us did. It seems everyone wanted out of their houses and since no one could cook a lot of people were going to get something to eat. I ended up thinking I just wanted a different view and since the power people were not coming anytime soon I ran to Wal-Mart. Well I guess everyone in my area was at Wal-Mart. We were not panic shopping, we were tired of being in the house. And when it is dark you can't see. So I picked up a few things and then ran by the Barnes and Noble to enjoy the air conditioning. Fortunately yesterday was not one of those 100 degree days we have usually about this time of year. At some point in the middle of the night the power came back on. I never heard anything but about 6:45 this morning was aware of a lovely cool breeze blowing down on the bed. Yea!! Now I can have my coffee. We were fortunate in that there was not any real damage in my area. The Weather Channel said that my area of town had 8.2 inches of rain and I definitely believe it. The DFW Airport only had just over 2 inches. Apparently there were 33,000 lightning strikes which they said was unbelievable. Also that this morning it was reported that 550,000 people were without power. As I said I have lived here a long time but this is the first time we have ever lost power due to a storm. The first two pictures are very similar and taken with a flash. I just thought they were cool because of the water drops. I like the third one the best because I took it without a flash. The hat is what I made yesterday for my Knit-A-Cap group, the one I was working on in the dark. The last picture, I forgot to mention that after I came home from Barnes and Noble it was dark. I lit several candles and got out the oil lamp. This is a lamp that I always use if we have a power outage. It belonged to one of the grandmothers. I sat the lamp on the bar and knit on a cowl I am making out of alpaca. In a way it was kind of neat because I was thinking that this was how knitting used to be done, late in the evening when it was dark, and with this type of light. I will tell you that I enjoyed it but I think if you did it for long it would really wear on your eyes. So our power is back on. Oh yes I forgot to mention that the lightning killed our cable box for cable but we were able to just run the line straight in to the TV. The TV in the computer room did not fare as well and will be out with the trash on Monday. All in all we did not have much that happened except the inconvenience of no air conditioning and no microwave. Oh, yeah, since there was no power I did not have to wash the clothes, until today.