There was a big thunderstorm yesterday. Short-lived, but it inflicted a lot of damage in the surrounding areas… lots of toppled trees, broken branches, and torn roofs. Our home escaped more-or-less unscathed, with some minor damage to a tree in our backyard and one section of a fence, but we also lost power for about 7 hours.
Losing power has never really been a big issue for me. It’s not ideal, sure, but there was a four day power outage back when I was in university (the early 2000s) and that was a lot worse. And even that wasn’t awful… I didn’t have a cell phone at the time (I have always been a bit of a Luddite) and the university cancelled classes so I just hung out with friends and played board games while BBQing everything I owned in the fridge and then freezer. It wasn’t ideal, sure, but it could’ve been much worse.
7 hours means we lost a fair amount of stuff from the fridge (about $60 to replace eggs, milk, cream, and a few open cheeses… that kind of stuff), but the freezers were both fine (never opened, lots of stuff in each, so the temperature barely budged). But there are people in the area that lost chunks of their roof, or had severe damage to their car, or lost windows… lots of really bad stuff, and we were basically just inconvenienced for a few hours when I got back from work.
We played a few board games to pass the time. It was nice!
I suppose I’m just grateful for the things in my life that are going right. Even when things really suck in many ways… there is stuff good stuff, or stuff that could be much, much worse but isn’t. And that’s worth remembering.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!