Boy did we have an adventure last night. We had spent the afternoon mowing and doing yard work. I know the Commandment about thou shalt do no servile labor but we had to mow and it's been raining every day I didn't have a chance to mow on Saturday. I had planned on taking a shower and then cooking some steaks on the grill for supper, but Debbie had a car wash I bought her on Memorial Day and she hadn't used yet. It was going to expire yesterday and she wanted to run out and run her car through the car wash. We decided to run out and wash the car then go through KFC and get some yard bird to bring back home. So we put Annie in her crate because she can't run free in the house while on rehab from her knee surgery and we took off. It's around 7:00 in the evening.
It had been a hot clear day but thunderstorms were beginning to break out. If you know Central Florida then you know that this time of year it's the battleground of the air masses. In thunderstorm season you can almost set your watch to the afternoon thunderstorms, but this was magnified by the soupy atmosphere from the stalled front that has brought us rain, rain, rain the last few days. We live right in the middle of the State, it's 65 miles to the Atlantic Ocean to the East and it's 65 miles to the Gulf of Mexico to the West. The sun heats the land and the land heats the air above it. The warm air rises and due to convection, cooler air moves in from the ocean and the gulf. They march inland and collide right over the top of us and last night's collision resulted in spectacular storms with heavy rain and lots of lightning.
We had just got the car wash and was heading to KFC when it broke lose. Torrential rain and awesome lightning. My first clue that things were going bad was that all the traffic lights were out. But we got to KFC and ordered in the rain, we got our food and headed back to the house. When we got to the neighborhood it was dark but it didn't register that the power was out until we pulled into the drive and garage door opener wouldn't work. Debbie said, well I guess we have to run for the door but then she realized that she didn't have her house keys. What? I didn't have mine either because I ran out and didn't grab my keys. Debbie's house key is on a key ring that has the truck key on it, she usually has in her purse but not this time. She had ran in the house on Saturday in a "hurry" to get to the bathroom and set her house key on the vanity and that's where it still was.
So there we sat in a torrential thunderstorm with no key to get in the house. Oh I have a spare key hidden in the garage. Duh! Note to self? Hide key outside somewhere. We waited for a few minutes but it didn't look like the power was going to come on any time soon. So we ate a piece of chicken and tried to decide our best course of action. Debbie decided she was going to go to the back porch and Jimmy a window. She had seen on the news where these thieves were breaking into apartments by just pushing the top window in and opening the bottom. I told her that wasn't our windows and they wouldn't open that easy. But she went around back and I sat in the car and ate some more chicken. About 15 minutes later she came back around and said, "I'm not a burglar and our house is more secure than I thought." I told her I could get in by breaking the glass but the alarm was set and I didn't really want to break the glass then have to have it repaired when I was sure the power would be back on at some point.
We decided to take our chicken and go to the back porch. Debbie had found a candle and a lighter back there so we sat back there and ate some more chicken. I have a refrigerator back there so we had some cold drinks anyway. We have a friend that lives 20 miles away in Polk City that has a key to our house, I was contemplating driving to Polk City and getting the key but I knew it would be 45 minutes before I could get back, maybe an hour in this weather. We were worried about Annie in the house in her cage. She had food and water but this was a horrific storm and I knew she was probably scared.
About that time the power came on. Hallelujah! Deb went around and opened the garage door and came through and let me in. We got Annie out and she was happy to see us. It was 10:05 P.M. when the power came back on. I knew I should have stayed home.
Note to self: Don't leave home without your key and hide one outside somewhere.
Sue our parts lady at work told me her new garage door opener has a battery back up in case the power goes out. I think I'll look into that.
Randy