Halle-frickin-lujah! Finally.
We had the mother of all storms last night. If we'd been near the ocean it would have been a hurricane - 70 mph force winds.
It started about 1 am or so and I was sleeping so crappy for some reason that I decided to go out onto the couch, make myself comfy and watch the storm through the balcony doors and try to drift off. I love storms. I find them very soothing. But then of course I've never had to actually live through a really destructive storm. *G* Phouka seemed to be a combination of fascinated and weirded out by the storm.
Unfortunately the power went off around 2:30. Luckily it was cool enough but I'm someone who is totally addicted to the sound and air movement of a fan but when I went to Escapade I bought myself one of those sound machines that mimic natural sounds. Also luckily, this one can run on batteries. Strangely enough I did manage to sleep pretty well after that. I woke up a few times to a still powerless apartment but went back to sleep. When I finally got up around 9 am the power was still off. Thank god my laptop, eReader and phone all had a full charge.
I determined that it wasn't just me with no power and then started waiting. I kept the apartment closed up to keep out the humidity but it's still not all that warm outside - not quite 80. After a couple of hours I began thinking, well shit, what if it's very localized and no one has bothered to call about the outage because, like me, they think it's already taken care of. So I called and reported then waited some more, making plans to go to the library for their electricity if need be and out to the Chinese buffet for lunch/dinner. But just before noon the place came alive again.
It was still cool enough inside that the A/C didn't even come on immediately.
I rarely have the TV on unless I'm actually watching something, almost never as just background noise. Ditto with music although sometimes I'll get in the mood for music while I try to write. But the minute I come home from work I turn on the fan in my room and it doesn't get turned off until I leave the apartment. I'm just addicted to the low drone, I have been since I was a child. So now I'm happy again although it could have been so much worse had the heat decided to kick it into high gear.
I was going to do a little balcony gardening in the early morning when it was still cool but put it off because I didn't want to get hot and sweaty with no A/C to retreat to. But the sun has hit the balcony full on so now I'll wait until early evening when the sun has passed over.
I originally thought I'd pass on the garden this year, then I decided I'd really like at least a single tomato and Anaheim pepper plant which I bought a couple of weeks ago. Then I decided I just needed a basil plant for pesto. But I got so tired of seeing my practically bare balcony! It's late enough in the year that everything's on sale so Wed I bought some petunias for the hanging baskets. But just petunias as so bare so I got a dracena marginata (tall, skinny, spikey plant you see in a lot of baskets) and another purplish-black ornamental sweet potato vine). And then there were some little orange and yellow marigolds for the tomato and pepper pots. Oh yeah, and then a little bush cucumber which I saw the gale force winds flattening last night and the hail pinging off of but is spry and perky this morning). And...uh...a few more herbs. But that's all! Really! *G*
OK, so the balcony isn't the jungle that it was a couple of years ago, but it's not bare any longer and I feel much cheerier when I look outside.
And, oh hey! My Baltimore Oriole is back to share the nectar feeder with the hummingbirds. Also, a new arrival that I haven't seen before - the house finch with his cheerful strawberry red head and breast. Very spiffy and such a cheery song. BTW, if you have a cat and haven't played bird songs for them you don't know what you're missing. It's very entertaining.
OK, so, work update later. This post has droned on long enough.
Happy Saturday all! Or, you know, Happy Sunday to those of you on the other side of the world.
It started about 1 am or so and I was sleeping so crappy for some reason that I decided to go out onto the couch, make myself comfy and watch the storm through the balcony doors and try to drift off. I love storms. I find them very soothing. But then of course I've never had to actually live through a really destructive storm. *G* Phouka seemed to be a combination of fascinated and weirded out by the storm.
Unfortunately the power went off around 2:30. Luckily it was cool enough but I'm someone who is totally addicted to the sound and air movement of a fan but when I went to Escapade I bought myself one of those sound machines that mimic natural sounds. Also luckily, this one can run on batteries. Strangely enough I did manage to sleep pretty well after that. I woke up a few times to a still powerless apartment but went back to sleep. When I finally got up around 9 am the power was still off. Thank god my laptop, eReader and phone all had a full charge.
I determined that it wasn't just me with no power and then started waiting. I kept the apartment closed up to keep out the humidity but it's still not all that warm outside - not quite 80. After a couple of hours I began thinking, well shit, what if it's very localized and no one has bothered to call about the outage because, like me, they think it's already taken care of. So I called and reported then waited some more, making plans to go to the library for their electricity if need be and out to the Chinese buffet for lunch/dinner. But just before noon the place came alive again.
It was still cool enough inside that the A/C didn't even come on immediately.
I rarely have the TV on unless I'm actually watching something, almost never as just background noise. Ditto with music although sometimes I'll get in the mood for music while I try to write. But the minute I come home from work I turn on the fan in my room and it doesn't get turned off until I leave the apartment. I'm just addicted to the low drone, I have been since I was a child. So now I'm happy again although it could have been so much worse had the heat decided to kick it into high gear.
I was going to do a little balcony gardening in the early morning when it was still cool but put it off because I didn't want to get hot and sweaty with no A/C to retreat to. But the sun has hit the balcony full on so now I'll wait until early evening when the sun has passed over.
I originally thought I'd pass on the garden this year, then I decided I'd really like at least a single tomato and Anaheim pepper plant which I bought a couple of weeks ago. Then I decided I just needed a basil plant for pesto. But I got so tired of seeing my practically bare balcony! It's late enough in the year that everything's on sale so Wed I bought some petunias for the hanging baskets. But just petunias as so bare so I got a dracena marginata (tall, skinny, spikey plant you see in a lot of baskets) and another purplish-black ornamental sweet potato vine). And then there were some little orange and yellow marigolds for the tomato and pepper pots. Oh yeah, and then a little bush cucumber which I saw the gale force winds flattening last night and the hail pinging off of but is spry and perky this morning). And...uh...a few more herbs. But that's all! Really! *G*
OK, so the balcony isn't the jungle that it was a couple of years ago, but it's not bare any longer and I feel much cheerier when I look outside.
And, oh hey! My Baltimore Oriole is back to share the nectar feeder with the hummingbirds. Also, a new arrival that I haven't seen before - the house finch with his cheerful strawberry red head and breast. Very spiffy and such a cheery song. BTW, if you have a cat and haven't played bird songs for them you don't know what you're missing. It's very entertaining.
OK, so, work update later. This post has droned on long enough.
Happy Saturday all! Or, you know, Happy Sunday to those of you on the other side of the world.