No Power, No Post

It was the weirdest thing. I was in Wal-Mart doing my weekly grocery shopping, when the electricity went out. I had already finished my shopping, and was on my way to the front of the store anyway. I found a register that appeared to be working, since the checker was checking someone out. I got in line, and she told me that she wouldn't be able to check me out. So I went down to another register and checked out with no problem. As soon as I got done, the power came back on.

As I left the store, I could see the storm front moving in from the north--exactly the direction I had to go.

I drove home, hoping I would beat the storm, fearing I wouldn't make it. I was about 2 miles out when the wind hit. It like to have blown me off the road, and I'm not just saying that. I was on the shoulder when I regained control of the car. I haven't seen wind like that since the last hurricane that came through here. It was picking up dirt from the cotton fields and blowing it into the next county. The trees were nearly bent double.

I turned onto my road, struggling to maintain control of my vehicle. There was a tree down across the road. Well, part of a tree. It looked like the top half had just snapped off. I had just enough room to get around it. Limbs, branches, even people's garbage cans were just blowing everywhere. When I got to the house, my garbage can was in the across the street neighbor's front yard. I hurried inside with my groceries, only to find the electricity was out.

It didn't last long. Fifteen or so minutes later and the worst of it was over. But the electricity was still out, and it stayed out until about 1:30 AM. No matter, my MP3 player was fully charged, and I had the rest of Emma to listen to, plus some podcasts I needed to catch up on. They would hold me. I sat by the window and knit and listened to stuff until it was too dark to see.

At one point, I looked out the back window and saw this bank of clouds.

It moved across the sky, looking for all the world like it was rolling the clouds up and taking them with it.


It revealed what had been behind it--an absolutely stunning sunset.

Except for a few clouds near the horizon, the sky was left clear, as if there hadn't just been a deadly storm passing through.

I watched the sunset until it faded into the blackness of night.


Then I went to bed.