Oh what a night…and day…and night…..

After hurricane force (ok not quite, but seemed like it) winds all day on Thursday, little did I know that Mother Nature was at work in other areas….

The plumber (I think I'll call him Sir Richard from now on) finished installing the boiler around 5:30 Thursday night.  The wind had stopped howling, the house was starting to heat up, the in-floor heaters were getting toasty, all was good.  Sir Richard told me that the main road into the village had been closed as a lorry (semi-truck) had jack knifed. I'm guessing from the wind.  I worried about Larry getting home from work but he assured me there were alternate routes.  He also informed me that there was a chance the river could flood.  I knew the wind was strong but it seemed strange it would flood when it wasn't even raining!  News reports started coming in that the villages along the river were to evacuate.  A VERY low pressure system, high winds and an abnormally high tide would be the cause of the worst tidal surge in 60 years.  At 7:30, the electricity went out.  So much for heating up the house.  At 4:30 a.m the security alarm siren went off.  Larry flew out of bed, frantically trying to remember the code to turn it off.  5:30 it went off again.  No amount of pushing in the code would turn it off.  It finally went off by itself after what seemed like an eternity.

The first two bodies of water are new

I spent the day in a cold house, except for the room with the gas stove, listening to the alarm system alternating between beeping and the siren going off, a dead cell phone and food in the refrigerator starting to spoil.  (The house must be very well insulated as the temperature stayed in the low 60's, not bad considering we'd end up being without heat for 3 days.  Outside it dipped into the 30's at night and 40's during the day.)  Decided to try charging my phone in the car in the garage.  I knew Larry had disengaged the garage door opener so I thought I'd just open it up, start the car and get the phone charged.  There was absolutely NO WAY to open that door.  I'm sure it weighs close to a ton and there isn't one handle on the blasted thing.  What's with the doors in this country!!

Larry said he barely got it open when he left for work. He had to pull on the disengage cord and at the same time, try to lift the door WITH NO HANDLES!  

I did get A LOT of reading done until the sun started going down between 3:30 and 4:00.  Back to sitting in the dark, working on a headache/nausea from smelling the mixture of pumpkin chai, wild oats & bourbon and tahiti vanilla candles.  The refinery had problems caused by the flooding so Larry didn't make it home until 8:00.  We took off to find dinner, noticed Vic next door had electricity.  REALLY!  Did he have it the whole time, right next door?!  With our bellies full, got ready to climb in bed and at exactly 10:45, the electricity came back on.  HALLELUJAH!!!

I am VERY thankful that the lack of electricity was the only problem we had to experience.  Hundreds of people had waste high water in their homes, just in our village alone. Others up the coast, lost their homes completely and there were a couple deaths.  Seems pretty trivial when I put it in perspective.

I will be stocking up on fragrance-free candles….