So last Thursday, around 11:30 pm, just in the middle of the ladies figure skating long program of the Olympics, we lost power. Ben thought he heard a big noise outside, but I didn't think much of it since the shock of all the power going out right in the middle of my favorite part of the winter Olympics was still fresh on my mind. We decided just to go to bed instead of trying to locate candles and flashlights so we could sit in the candlelight and gaze into each others eyes...or something. Once in bed I felt so anxious. The wind was really whipping. I had the brilliant idea that if I just got up and looked outside it would calm my nerves since our old house often makes all kinds of noises in the wind. I thought it probably sounded much worse than it was. I got up, only to have my fears stirred even more. The trees were bending over back and forth with the wind. I mean really bending. I haven't experienced such a strong wind since our camping trip to Franconia Notch in the 80's, where we ended up with a tree through the cab of the truck we were using as shelter...but that's another story. (Back to last Thursday) I kept wondering if we should move Tobi into our room. But then it seemed that the wind did indeed calm down and so did my nerves, enough to let me sleep. Ben got up the next day and we still had no power. He went off to work. A little while later I went to get Tobi up and looked out her bedroom window. It took me a few seconds to piece together what I was looking at...something was different about our yard. Oh, right. THERE IS A HUGE TREE ON THE GROUND. A huge pine, totally uprooted. Not to mention most of those trees I had seen bending over so far had snapped. We had at least 6 or 7 trees down and several big branches. I think the loud noise that Ben heard was that pine tree falling and ripping all the wires off the side of our house.
My Dad came up and rescued Tobi and me from our cold powerless house and took us to their house for the weekend. We had planned on staying there that weekend anyway, but we just extended our stay by a day or two. We must have gotten power back Sunday night or Monday morning. When our electricity goes out we have no lights, no heat, and no water. We would have been cold!!! Thankfully we had a great place to stay. I'm also thankful that the trees fell the way they did. Just a few feet differently and we could have had a lot more damage than a few wires down. It was a little frightening when I realized that tree was just a few yards away from the side of the house where Tobi sleeps. It may look like a mini twister came through those woods, but the house and the people are safe! Thank you, Lord!
We stopped by Chipotle Mexican Grill on our way down to the 'Rica. Tobi decided that eating black beans one by one using a straw would be the best way to enjoy her lunch. As you can see, she thoroughly enjoyed it!
