We finally got our power back this afternoon! That was a big relief. Half of our frozen food had begun to thaw, so now I've got two large ice chests filled with everything from berries to abalone. Those will have to go to New Hampshire with us. For the next ten days or so, it will be what we eat.
There were some casualties. Bags of garlic, Thanksgiving white meat from an undetermined year, and the squirrel I shot 2.5 years ago... are finally going into the trash. We really DO need to go through our freezers more often!
From the paper, "The bulk of Friday's storm damage was in West Virginia, Washington and the capital's Virginia and Maryland suburbs."
I first thought the storm was my immediate neighborhood. It wasn't until we got the Sunday paper that I actually learned the scope of this thing. However, I can tell you that I've seen no neighborood that was hit harder than mine. The paper mentions Reston, VA - which is one mile away - as having experienced 85 mph winds. I believe we may have topped that.
Trees are down at every second or third home. I lost a huge one that snapped another like a twig on its way down. I'll post photos shortly. People down the street have a tree on their roof. Another family lost four trees - and these houses aren't on acreage... just ordinary, suburban lots (a half acre or so.)
It was a pretty amazing storm. I'd fallen asleep on the living room couch and awoke as it approached. I mean, literally, as it approached. It wasn't at all windy yet, but there was a roar in the distance that woke me up.
As I awoke, the power flickered... off, on, off, on, maybe five or six times, then off for good.
Then the storm hit, and continued strengthening over perhaps five minutes. The trees in back were whipsawed by it, and heavy rain begain pouring down. At this point, I was delighted - because it had been 104 degrees, the hottest June day in Northern Virginia's history, and my house's downstairs air conditioning was out. The temperature must have dropped 20 degrees (to 80) in those five minutes.
Did I mention the sky? Almost nonstop flickering. No thunder, but several flashes of light per second. Very strange!
The wind and and rain dwindled down over the next half hour and then were gone. It was very strange weather indeed.
My friends two miles down the road still have no power. I feel for them. I drove over to deliver some gas (I always have quite a bit stocked) and to take what I could of their freezer contents. They had more, but I wasn't sure how much room I had.
| 
