The Summer Storm From Hell

I learned a few things during this recent storm from hell that hit the DC area a few days ago. They aren't particularlly deep lessons or anything, but entertaining enough to write down. I mean, how often does a storm that knocks out power to over 1 million happen around here? Answer: never. Note: I just got back power maybe two hours ago after going about two days worth without it in 100 degree Virginia-humid weather so you can say I'm quite chuffed.

Lesson 1: Be Careful What You Wish For (or at least be specific)
-When this storm started and the trees outside my kitchen window started hurling themselves around like some of my overly enthusiastic drunk friends, I got excited that we could in fact lose power. I actually like the thrill of things going pitch black and being at the mercy of mother nature mostly because my area never loses power as most of the lines are underground. Well, when the power finally did go out, I broke out the candles and flashlights and felt like a champ. That night, I went to bed to the sweet sound of rain and still strong wind, all content and happy with the world. Now fast forward to two days later where 80+% humidity and 100 degree highs reigned and I'm absolutely miserable. Everything is sticky: the couches, the chairs, the table, and there is absolutely no breeze at night when things cooled down a bit so even sleeping with the windows open did nothing to help. It reached about 88 degrees at its peak inside the house which is bloody miserable. Moral of the story: if you're going to wish the power to go out, include details such as 75-80 degree highs, moderate breezes, and at most for 24 hours.

Lesson 2: Ice
-Fun Fact: when the power goes out, you have about 1 day or so before your frige warms up and less than two before everything in your freezer thaws and is ruined. Moral of the story? If the power goes out, the moment that it's safe to drive and it's before midnight or so: haul ass to the nearest grocery store and get your greedy little fingers on all the effing dry ice or bags of ice you can. I don't care if you have to punch a kitten or sweet old Mrs. Johnson from next door, just go and hoard the stuff unless you want to lose all your perishables. Literally, the next afternoon after the storm ended, all the local grocery stores (and there are 4 within a 10 minutes drive of my house) were out of dry and regular ice. Mind you, this storm hit pretty much just days after a Costco run so we had quite a lot of stuff that needed saving. Unfortunately we were late to strike so a lot of food will probably be sacrified. So wha happens of the power comes back earlier and you have lots of left over ice? Well, make some cocktails or something. Win-win.

Lesson 3: Don't Take Any Modern Convenience For Granted
- Some things I never knew I would miss so badly until they were forceably ripped from my hands: air conditioning, the fridge, television, home phone (we have fios so no real land-line), charged laptops, fans, the ice maker, the microwave, wifi, the printer, lights, and more air conditioning. I have never been more happy to stand outside and hear the background humming of dozens of household air conditioners running at the same time.

Lesson 4: My Inner 5 Year-Old Comes Out When I'm Bored
-Not really a lesson but more of an observation - Since I was internetless, and pretty much my life revolves around it nowadays, I revert back to my elementary school roots to pass the time. One night I found a bottle of bubble solution and I ended up just hooking up my ipod to my car stereo and blowing bubbles for an hour while sitting on the trunk of my car. Good stuff. I also spent my days doing word searches, sketching, and rolling around on the floor with my dog. See? 5 year old.

Lesson 5: I Start Craving Salad When It's Hot
-Once again, more of an observation than a lesson but I ate more salads in the past two days than I had in the past two months. They were quite tasty salads though, I must say.

Lesson 6: Driver Licensing Laws Are Way Too Easy
-Not news to me or many people for that matter but it's worth saying. When street lights stop working, we've all been told to treat intersections as 4-way stops. Someone (meaning almost everyone), didn't get the memo apparentely since I saw nearly 5 near crashes at major intersections because people decided they were king of the road and barrell through an intersection without stopping or bothering to look at other drivers. The icing on the cake for me however when it comes to bad driving is seeing a guy in an SUV driving INTO a massive fallen tree branch that was blocking the right lane with his SUV. I think he figured he would just plow through it since he had a massive truck but nope, Mother Nature bitch slapped him in the face and made him swerve onto the sidewalk and through a chain link fence before coming to a stop. It was quite funny to be honest.

So hooray for the power being back and for my house slowly cooling down to a beautiful, low humidity 75 degrees. I got a taste of what living in the 19th century must have felt like, and I don't intend to ever try that out again.

All the best,

JP

A Good Kind of Pain

Today was probably one of the most tiring days of my entire summer, yet, it also one of my favorite because today was the day of my high school crew team's car wash/bake sale fundraisers. This morning didn't look to promising, tropical storm (depression?) Danny was going up along the East coast the night before and it was still really grey and threatening to rain. That did not bode well for people wanting to donate money to get their car sponge washed behind an Exxon station, but we plowed on like the steadfast rowers we are. In the end, my first job ended up being selling baked goods from a basket while patrolling a median in the middle of a busy road, apart from losing my voice and extreme diaphragm pains from shouting for an hour straight, it turned out to be a surprising success. Despite the cross country team competing with us across the street, we still did well. By the way, a little background- apparently the gas station we were at doubled booked us with cross country, but since we technically booked first we got the spot. This probably intensified the little competition between us and XC and you can guess fundraising wars can get quite intense. I still had three people just give me $20 without evening taking some cookies and whatnot and many other people who paid $5 for one brownie, needless to say, it was a good day. But probably the highlight for me was the little kick line me and two of my friends did to draw attention on said busy road, judging from the many smiles we got, I can confidently say we made a few commuter's days a little better. But in the end, the most important thing for us was that this was a fundraiser and happily, we possibly set a new record for ourselves. By the end of the day, we had made $1,021.41 which is not bad for 6 hours of playful work and a day which ended up being pleasantly sunny; sure, my legs hurt still from all the running, jumping and kick-lining but hey, it's worth it, and I can comfortably say we beat XC this time.

Also, just to clear things up, I don't have anything against XC, it's just competitive between us. Heck, all the guys I've liked, and I mean ALL of them including Ben have run or are running XC. I guess I have something for runners then, eh?

But yeah, today was an eventful and productive day, and if if nature wanted to just make my day a wee bit more exciting, it's storming right now, thunder, lightning, the whole lot, so thank you, mother nature. Unfortunately, my dog, Max, does not approve of this weather as he has gone into his terrified-destructive mode where he attempts to hide and will not let anything get in his way. We've locked him in a bathroom so he doesn't damage anything or himself for that matter until the worst of it passes. Finally, to wrap up this week, tomorrow will be my aunt's 60th birthday dinner so that means another family gathering and for me, time to have talk time with one of my cousins who is also in his spare time teaching me to drive stick shift. I have a long way to go haha.

Also, Maria, if you're reading this, "Hi" and send me a FB message. Maria's my best friend by the way, she's the first person I came out to and the first person I've told this blog about to. Random, I know.

I'm really tired so I'm probably going to go take a nap or something before I try and get some more of my last minute summer work done.