Unplugged

It is that time of the year again.  We have passed through the season of the yellow death - our annual pollen hell - and entered the season of afternoon pop up storms.  For the last few nights the skies become ominous somewhere between 4:00pm and 7:00pm.  An unnatural darkness seems to suck all of the light from outside and inside the house.  The skies turn a shade of deep navy blue with the occasional illumination of lightning. Once the wind pick up and begins to blow leaves and lawn furniture over then it is only a matter of time before the bottom drops out and the rain pours and the lightning and thunder follow. The lightning can truly light up the inside of the house, seeming to reach around corners into dark, windowless rooms.  The thunder sounds as if something incredibly and unnaturally huge fell - with echoes rolling for long moments afterwards. The rain begins with big, fat drops against the windows or on the driveway and give over to a downpour as if the whole cloud above was being emptied.  

The storm the other night hit close by. A huge bolt of lightning was followed by a huge clap of thunder followed by the distinct sound of a transformer shorting out and then the lights flickered and went out.  They came back on for half a moment and then went went out again. Time passed and it became clear that the power was not coming back on soon.  Once the storm passed I went outside and was greeted by quiet.  No AC units running, no cars outside, no manmade noise to be heard.   

I went back inside and went into "dad mode" as the boys call it.  I pulled down the flashlights, lit candles, and made sure everything was prepared in case it would be a long outage. All of that sits in a tote in the closet for just such a moment.  I called Betty to make sure she was okay. Then I went over to check on her smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.  By the time I got back the kids were inside with a flashlight and Magic The Gathering cards playing.  They were completely unfazed by the lack of available technology.  Amazingly, they can survive without iPhones or Netflix!   

I was treated to the usual rainbow (double rainbow!) that is always at the end of our street (but never over our house).  In the fading light of the day the sky was an unusual shade of pink and the rainbow looked like it was leaking into the sky.  In the other direction the sky was a deep orange, lit by the setting sun.  

The twilight was rewarding after a hard storm and I quietly regretted the power coming back after an hour and a half.  

Just another day in the life of the Brown Family.