Quite the weekend

**WARNING** New Englander obsessed weather post to follow:

It was an eventful weekend in our lives. We'd set aside this weekend to go to Maine for 3 days for Ben to spend time sorting through things he'd stored in his mom's garage - you know, that crap we all kept because who knows if you might need that 9th grade Biology notebook someday...She had requested he come and sort through his things to make some room in the storage space.

Friday we trekked to Kezar and literally walked in the door 30 seconds ahead of a massive thunderstorm. I have never experienced anything quite like that, even in my grad. school days in the midwest. The power flickered a few times and then went out. The outage was followed closely by a lightening strike that was VERY close to the house. From where we were standing we didn't see the flash, but we heard the boom which was perhaps the loudest thing I've ever heard and it sounded metallic, as though the lightening had struck a metal object (a car, a boat, we didn't know and couldn't easily determine) Everyone stood stock still for a few seconds waiting to hear a tree fall or a fire to ignite or something, but nothing happened.

I've never been particularly bothered by losing power, but in this case it totally sucked because their water system is a well with an electric pump...when it fails there's no water to drink, flush toilets with, shower, wash dishes. Not knowing how long it would be out, we made the best of things with Ben's folks as we waited on the arrival of his sister and stepbrother and kids.

With everyone assembled, you've got 6 adults and 2 kids and no water, a fridge full of food that will spoil if the power doesn't come back on and a freezer that is rapidly defrosting. Surprisingly, no one seemed all that concerned about the beer fridge getting warm....

Dinner was easily moved to the grill, but once darkness fell, there wasn't much to do. We made a betting pool of when the lights would come back on and incidentally we all lost. Entertainment that night was me sitting at their piano badly hacking out folk tunes from a few anthologies while everyone held flashlights aimed at the music, sang along and Benton rang the cow bell and people chimed in, "needs more cowbell", which honestly, makes Kookabura a way more interesting song. Sadly Ben and I seemed to clear the room when we discovered the 80's songbook and busted out a Bonnie Tyler tune.

It was a restless night for everyone with no fans to move the humid, heavy air. We went to bed only to discover a stash of seeds under Ben's pillow. Multiple people examined them and it was finally determined that some sort of visitor in the form of small and furry must have delivered them. We swept them into the trash and Ben begrudgingly got into bed when I said it was silly to change the sheets, it wasn't like we'd found poop or anything... In the morning Ben's bucket brigade began to bring water to fill the backs of toilets so they could be flushed. Several brave souls showered in the lake in the early morning. I held out, hoping power would come back on. It did eventually, after 17 HOURS and I enjoyed my indoor shower. I also opened the drawer to the bedside table on my side of the bed and found more seeds. And also poop. Of the mouse variety. Not only did nature come indoors, but it climbed a serious set of stairs to bring those seeds into our room. We were assured that an exterminator will be called and in fact, they'd caught two mice in traps earlier in the month.

The weather cleared in the afternoon long enough to take a swim, but as Ben and I lounged on the float out in the lake, there was a major clap of thunder that caused his mom to bolt out of her chair on the dock and yell to us "alright you two, back in here right now".

We heard there was a tornado in the town next to ours that cut an interesting path of damage. The bottom line is it rained all freaking weekend. This makes the 4th weekend that we've been there when it has rained this summer. The only time it didn't was on the day of our wedding. I suppose that's really the only time it truly mattered, so I shouldn't complain.

Ben did do his garage thing, sorting through in the humid, hot, airless storage space and managed to chuck quite a bit. That was a relief to me because no matter what, a whole lot less of that will ever come to us when we own a home.

The lightening strike mystery may be solved by the fact that the satellite television didn't work. The dish itself is mounted on a small, one room cabin that is about 150 yards from the house. It is the exact location where we heard the metallic boom so seems likely that was what got hit. Better that than the house or a huge tree, I say!

The best part of the weekend is that we came home with a very cute, white crib for Speedy. Ben's mom bought us the dresser/changer and my mom bought the glider rocker so we officially have furniture for the nursery. The whole ride home we kept turning to look in the back seat and saying to each other "we have a bed for Speedy!" Somehow that made this whole thing real in a way it hadn't yet been. Fun!

And a small closing note about the weather. We'd closed up our place in case of rain and while it was good that we did because it also rained down here, it was so stuffy and awful and hot when we got home. Even kitty was unhappy with the temperature and she loves her some warmth.