A night with out electricity...

Exercise: was ~16 miles (8 intervals on my bike first thing), including 3 trips up the prayer mountain drive way (the first time I've done it 3 times back to back). Then ran 4 miles at a moderate pace. It took about a mile to get my legs after riding. Nutrition was fair: good breakfast and lunch, but had 3 bagels and ice cream through out the day. [The first photo is the oatmeal for breakfast (with some good fruit)]

The significance of yesterday wasn't in the training but in coming home in the evening to a dark muggy home. So that's where my focus is in this entry.

The first storm rolled through while we were at an Ice Cream social at the church that the kids are attending VBS at this week. We knew it was coming as the emergency broadcasts were interrupting a show that I was half watching while I was paying bills. There were reports of tornado's North and West of here as the storm was approaching.

By 7 PM the storm front was starting to pass by. For those that grew up on the West coast, much can be missed in that previous sentence: "the storm front was starting to pass by". I've never witnessed a 'storm front' while growing up in coastal CA like we experience here routinely. The winds were very stout blowing everything and many things that were anchored as well - as we saw many branches and trees in part and one in whole blown down on our drive back home. The rain can accompany the front, or sometimes it waits for that bolt of lightning and crack of thunder that sounds like it went off 30 feet above your head - then the intense downpour of rain. Ahhhh... the storms are amazing. Throughout out the night last night there were 5 storms that blew over - with the tornado alarms going off twice. It was a pretty exciting night. I slept with ear plugs as I was tired and wanting sleep more than the enjoyment of watching the amazing storms go over.

The thunder was odd last night as many of them sounded like drums being played - one right after the other. I hadn't heard thunder like that and I've lived here 16 years now. I've seen the sky boil, turn deep shades of blue and green, seen feet of hail fall from the sky, taken refuge under an overpass while a tornado passed nearby, watched countless lightning shows, gotten completely soaked running from my car to the house ... many neat memories with the severe weather here - but have never heard thunder like last night. It was very different: partly by what it was and partly because I've never heard anything like it before - new can be scary.

Not having electricity when we got home was a bit stressful and inconvenient. We would have normally turned down the thermostat and turned on the fans - maybe gotten into the refrigerator for something to eat or drink. Certainly we would have turned on lights. But instead we pulled out the emergency light, rounded up some more flashlights and then started lighting and distributing candles through out the rooms that needed them. We opened doors and windows for cooler air. We stayed out of the refrigerator. The phones didn't work as they require power, so we plugged in the 20 yr old phone that does work with out power. The water filter on the fridge didn't work - so we had bottled water. I ended up sitting out on the porch with my oldest son just relaxing and pondering (and eating a few pretzels).

It was good to think about the many things I take for granted. This is often a part of the process when traveling out of the States for me, but it's been a while sense I've been out and the loss of electricity was enough to start me down that path. Not having electricity available 24 hrs / day is a reality for much of the World. Having food, work, medical care, .... and on it goes, more than can be listed. There are many things I am frustrated with in our majority elected political system - but after a few weeks in another country I've always been glad to be returning "home". The face of this great country is changing - I just hope America, what it has been and is, will not be forever lost by the desires of the majority.