And now the fun begins!

Actually, the fun began late yesterday...as I was making ice (putting little open containers of water in the freezer) Shirley and Mercy were helping and both of them jostled me a couple of times and I had a lovely little puddle of water on the floor and sorta under the 'fridge. So, when I finished (making ice) I began to sop up the water with a couple of paper towels. Right when I had my arm scootched down the side of the 'fridge (and under the plug) a giant BOOM sounded, the floor shook and the panes in the windows rattled and the power went out! Then the house started filling with smoke. Scared me to death!

I grabbed Shirley, ran out and put her in the car...ran back in & grabbed Goodness (who I had finally gotten into the house and he was having fits!) and ran out to the car, I got the door opened and was pushing Shirley back with my knee when Goodness gave one of those long-cat twists, flipped out of my grip and was over my shoulder and down my back in a flash. Couldn't get him. Ran back in (house was quite smoky by now) couldn't find Mercy. Picked up the phone to call 911 and it was dead. Grabbed my money stash, put on a bra and ran next door (left the back door open because of Mercy). As I dashed over, I looked over toward my other neighbor and saw pecan limbs down over the power lines and flames dancing down the lines and under the eaves and flames were going quite nicely around the power pole and several feet up it too.

You should have seen the face on my neighbor when he answered the door, I must have rapped quite loudly (I did want to make sure he heard me). All I could say was "a tree took out my power lines and the house is filling with smoke. Please call someone my phone is dead". He said ok, went back in and closed the door. He did come back out shortly and said Progess Energy would be out soon and that they said a breaker should have flipped and the fire should go out.

I didn't know what to do. Was shaking like a leaf. Backed the car out and left Shirley in it. Went back in and found Mercy, just couldn't catch her, so decided to leave the door open.

Then the rain began. Then Progress Energy arrived. Two trucks.

Well, it turns out the tree took out the power line, the phone line and the cable line. You should see them they look very much like eerie Christmas decorations with hardened black drippy stuff hanging from them.

Progress Energy finished around 9pm. Told me to check out everything. Only half of the house works...the ceiling fan and one wall outlet in the living room, everything but the shower light in my room, the stove, but not the refrigerator in the kitchen, no air conditioner, etc. So I called out to the guys and they came in and looked at my breaker box. Something is wrong with it and one of the heavy switches keeps flipping off. They told me to call an electrician asap. I had no phone.

So, I grabbed my purse and jumped in the car and decided to go to the office to make some calls. Well, the rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was really pushing my little car around and the town was dead and going out to the office felt scary, so I turned around and went to Leah Jane's house. I'm so glad she was still up. We tried calling one electrician and his business phone has been disconnected...found his home number and left a message on his machine. Didn't have a phone number to leave, but left name, address and problem. LJ insisted that I bring her cell phone home with me, she didn't want me alone without one. That was awfully nice.

When I got home I got out a heavy extension cord and plugged the refrigerator up to an outlet on the other side of the kitchen. Whew!

Got to the office at 6:20 this morning (was home by 7:30). Called electrician again...left message. Called Sprint and they had me up and running by 2 this afternoon. Called cable, they said by 5...we'll see.

It was still raining all this time. The yard is standing in water. Feast or famine!

Decided to take LJ's phone back to her. Wrote her a note in case she was out (she was) and put everything in a plastic bag. Still pouring rain. For some reason I took my cigarette with me when I ran up her steps to hang the phone on the back door and when I ran back to the car I somehow knocked the end off of it as I got in the car. Now there is a dime size (ugly) hole in the middle of my car seat and she doesn't even have 4,000 miles on her! And I have melted seat cover stuck to the back of my middle finger...guess I was using it to put the cigarette end out. Oh well, it could have been worse.

And, it wasn't even my tree that did all of this, it belongs to me neighbor. The funny thing is the tree broke in half and it wasn't even raining (nor had it) and there was no wind. Go figure!

Right now the rain has slowed down quite a bit and there is only a small breeze. Alberto has come ashore and he's not so bad. Lets keep our fingers crossed for the rest of the season!