soc_puppet | If half a tree falls in the night and everyone sleeps through it, how soon can we get the power on?

So, starting at early-ass-o'clock in the morning today (or, for those of us who don't care for circadian rhythms, "bed time"), there was this huge thunderstorm. Usually, thunderstorms don't last more than fifteen or twenty minutes; it's hard to keep that level of energy up. Today, however, the storm not only lasted for hours (at least through five-thirty; I'm pretty sure I fell into a deep sleep after that), but it kept up crazy concentration right over my head for the duration.

When I woke later in the morning (roughly ten o'clock), it was to the silence of the fan I keep on my bed. It's an older fan that's been crapping out for a while, so I figured it was just more of the same. Then I tried to turn on the lights, and they wouldn't go on, so I decided that, based on the evidence of two appliances plugged into the same outlet, that the power was probably out. Not entirely surprising, given the storm, aside from the fact that it wasn't back on yet. I went back to sleep in the hopes that it would be fixed when I again awoke.

Sadly, this was not to be, and when I finally got up at eleven-thirty, the power was still out. This was because a good third of a rather large tree in our neighbors' yard had fallen from lightning strike to knock the power line down. So not only were we powerless, but we were likely mostly alone in our plight - unlike the sideways tornado of '98 (I think?), wherein something like half the town lost power and we got free fried chicken from KFC so it wouldn't go bad, and also got to eat ice cream for dinner. (I was in later elementary school. This was very exciting.)

In any case, I have pictures, and will share them as soon as I get the opportunity to do so. The opportunity likely involving the power going back up at my house so I can upload them to my computer and re-size, of course. Hopefully, that will be sooner rather than later. Hopefully.

In the mean time, back to immersing myself in the internet! *hums and goes immersing*

Edit: Some corrections!

Thankfully, it was not the tree that knocked the power out, but a repair person who turned it off to get some work done. Yay, repairs! This means that we still had power when my parents left for work, too. Also, the tree half was more likely felled by the 80mph wind than lightning, and that black stuff by the wound more likely rot from where it was already cracked than lightning singe.

And that's about all I found out. But the power's back on, so yay! Even if I haven't gotten around to resizing those pictures yet 9_9a