Memorable Sunday

Yesterday was a memorable day, so I thought I would write about it.

We woke up with thunder storms (This IS November... thunder storms are not usual). Danny-dog did not like them and tried to climb into bed (and was rejected) but this was just the beginning of the weather.

Church was good. The sermon was about Sampson, and how to not be like him.

P had Youth Group after church, so we went to the nearby Culvers for dinner. When we got there, the tornado warning sirens were sounding, but the sky didn't look too bad, so we went in. While we were eating the weather news was on. The Bears game at Soldier Field was suspended and all the players and fans were moved into sheltered areas. It was organized and orderly, they did a very good job. I understand the fans continued the party while the storm went on.

Back at Culvers the sky got darker and the wind got stronger. One of the managers announced that since there was a tornado warning no one would be allowed to leave, and they moved everyone away from the windows. They also mentioned there was a room in the back where we could go if it got really bad. DH and I were not really too upset, but C was getting a little worried; her hands were shaking! It did feel safer to sit on my or grandpa's knee with our arms around her. so we did that. We did talk to the people at church as well, and found out they were continuing their meeting in the basement, and so were also safe.

At one point the wind and the rain were so strong we couldn't see across the expressway. There was a lot of rain. When it let up we slipped out and drove the mile back to church. By now there was a blue spot in the sky, so we were feeling much more comfortable. We waited at church with another couple whose son was also in Youth Group. There is a "living room" area in the basement with very comfortable furniture where we waited, and we couldn't hear any weather at all. In fact, it was so calm that C started to get bored, and wanted to join the fun with the other kids. (Earlier she had been in line for lunch with them--before we left for Culvers.)

When we got home, our alley was blocked off with a fire truck because of a downed electric line! It was no surprise to find out that we had no electricity at home. Because of the power line trucks came to work on it quickly; unfortunately the fix wasn't quite so quick.

We spent the time finishing the reading of The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis. It is the last of the Narnia Chronicles, and we had been reading it, on and off, for quite a while. We had to use a flashlight to finish reading. We walked down to supervise the repairs several times, and were encouraged that each time we went down there there were more trucks, except at one point the parade of repair vehicles went down the street and there was no one in the alley! (Shortly afterwards they were back, so it must have been a supper break.)

The lights came back on, and we were settling in for a comfortable evening, but 1/2 hour later they went off again! We ordered pizza after finding a place that was open. They said it would be an hour wait, but we didn't want to open the fridge more than we had to, so we placed the order. After an hour and 15 minutes DD1 checked the website and we were shocked to see "Closed Because of Weather"! It said the same thing on the phone answering machine. By now I was getting a little hungry, and a little crabby too. We decided to go out and find some food. We had to make a detour to get around the repair trucks. We tried to duck through the alley, but there were still lines down there too, so we backed out of the alley and went around.

We found an open Subway store, and picked up some food and came home, just to find the pizza delivery car in our parking spot! So we had a choice of suppers. I ate some pizza stuffers (too salty) and my cookie from Subway, and I have a sandwich for today. I felt much better afterwards.

For the rest of the evening we mostly read; DH still had power in his iPod, so he was listening to music. I had a paperback book that had been languishing next to my bed for some time.

At bed time the power was still not back on, so DH had to go to bed without his C-PAP machine. He woke up gasping for breath... and was extremely happy when the power came back on after 1 AM and he could relax with his mask on. I made a circuit to make sure most things were turned off (had to adjust the light that was on a timer, and turn one or 2 things off, including the TV) and we are back to normal!

It just takes one day like that to be so thankful for electricity, and all the things it does in our lives.