Of Storms and Sleep

Don't let the 5:30-6am wake-up times fool you.  My kid can sleep.  She could probably sleep through a war.  And, as a creature of habit on top of all of that, she is next to impossible to keep up past her usual bedtime of 7:30-8pm.  Since she was about 3 months old, she's never gotten up during the night.  I don't mean to make you all jealous, but really, we're pretty darn happy about that.  But the 5:30-6am wake-up time does necessitate that we (or at least I) go to bed pretty early in order to get a good sleep.  And there's nothing wrong with her waking around that time anyway, as school starts at 7:50, and she'd need to be up by 6:30 to get ready to get out the door by 7:30.  The kid has no concept of hurry. 

I'm totally getting off track here.  I just had to say all that to make you jealous as a bit of clarification. 

Friday night, as Samantha snoozed quietly, safe and cozy in her bed, Steve and I watched the Doppler radar flickering silently, stealthily, menacingly across our TV on the local weather channel.  There was a veritable wall of storm just minutes from engulfing us.  And not a storm that had any kind of gentle lead-up...it was a wall.  Like, there'd be nothing, and then there'd be hurricane-force-wind storm.  I flitted around the house preparing stuff that would be deemed an inconvenience if we were to lose power, like getting all the dishes out of the sink, hunting down the flashlights, laying some stuff down on the back deck that would surely be knocked over, washing my face and brushing my teeth for bed, you know, those little things that could prove problematic later.  As I started to clear the sink, whoosh, there it was.  A solid wall of wind, smacking head-on into the house.  We knew it wouldn't last long, but in the interest of being prepared in case our roof was blown off, I went upstairs and picked the sleeping Princess up out of her bed, still sound asleep, and brought her downstairs with us in front of the TV, still sound asleep. 

And yes, she slept through the whole thing, allowing me to put her back into bed half an hour later, never the wiser to her little slumbering journey.

Crazy, I know. 

And, unlike more than a million (yes, I said million!) people in our region, we did not lose power.  The planners and developers of our town, being a new-ish development in the grand scheme of things, had the forethought to run all of the power lines under ground, sparing us the inconveniences felt by others nearly every time there's a storm. 

Somehow some of the nearby businesses have managed to stay afloat during this power crisis.  Wanting to spend a gift card Sammi had received for her birthday, we ventured over to Toys R Us on Saturday morning.  Toys R Us who had no air conditioning and minimal back-up lighting and registers running off a generator.  Strangely serene and relaxing (if you could get past the sweat trickling down your face) in that state, we purchased some Brave dolls (Merida and her horse, Angus) and scored an unruly red Merida wig (free with any Disney purchase of $30 or more!), which was a big hit, especially when placed on Daddy's head.  I decline to include photos, in the interest of seeing our 21st anniversary in November...

Target was similarly open, although we opted for a different location closer to home (yes, we have 3 Targets within a 5 mi. radius, with another one just slightly beyond that) that did have power.  I guess you've gotta do what you've gotta do. 

My car gas gauge hit empty yesterday, and I felt genuine fear as I pulled into one of the local gas stations only to discover a huge line of cars waiting for gas with only 2 or 3 operational pumps, and a big sign stating that there was no regular gas left.  I gave up waiting, and left.  All the out-of-towners had apparently flocked to our town to get gas from pumps that actually worked.  I was relieved to find another station nearby that, while it had all pumps working and no line, only had regular.  Works for me! 

And, as my office happens to be closed today due to no power, I am unable to do much, other than keep checking my work e-mail for updates, stay cool in my well-air-conditioned house, and catch up on a bit of blogging. 

My heart goes out to those who are suffering through the heat and dark and lack of refrigeration.  I can't even imagine having to do that.  Hearing everyone's stories reminds me of just how fragile our infrastructure really is.  So many things we take such great advantage of, take for granted, that could go away in an instant and leave us in dire straits. 

And sleeping in the heat is just about the most awful feeling, with temperatures in excess of 100 degrees this past weekend.  Yikes.  

Even though I suspect Samantha would still be able to pull it off in that awesome-sleep way of hers.