Wotta week. Last night, my friend M and I made it back from what turned out to be a very difficult trip to DC. I'm not sure how much notice the weather news got outside of the DC area, but it was baad.
(I drew a trio of cards and am laughing at how it tells the tale - I can laugh now that it's done!)
On Wednesday, M and I left for what should have been a 4.5 hour drive - I had a doctor's appointment out there on Thursday, so the plan was to head out on Wednesday, then M would drop me off at the hospital on Thursday while he went to work, pick me up after and on Friday I'd hang at his house and we'd head back home here on Saturday.
The 6 of Swords describes the purpose of the trip - to get back on a medication and care program that would ease up some of the pain and loss of functionality I've had the last few months. Good plan, eh? Here we see Orestes making a trip toward peace... should've been smooth sailing and the result of course was to secure a calmer future.
Unfortunately, the drive took more than 8 hours and it was rainy the entire way - and it turns out we were driving in the wake of a major storm that began in the Ohio Valley, blew through WV (and overtook us in Frostburg, where it dumped a firehose-worth of rain on us when we'd stopped to get something to eat), and went on to make mincemeat out of DC's commuter traffic. By the time we made it to the area, traffic was at a total standstill, street lights all over the region were out, and it took us as long to crawl around the loop as it did to get there from my front door.
Turns out, we didn't even realize the half of it. When we got to M's house, a tree (a very healthy, old, vibrant tree) had been torn up by its roots and was laying across the street (fortunately hitting no one's house or car), right on top of the power lines - no power to the neighborhood, of course. We were tired, wet and hungry, so we dropped off our stuff and went to look for food - figuring we'd drive til we found somewhere with lights on and then pick a restaurant.
Off we went and found an area that looked lit up and normal, flipped on the radio and heard "...immediately take shelter. If you do not have a basement, get into the bathtub. Again, if you are in the (exact area where we were), take shelter IMMEDIATELY - this is a fast moving tornado and will he hitting in the next couple of minutes."
ERK! With no time to think and no bathtubs in the car to take shelter in, we ducked into the parking lot next to us and decided to go into the restaurant there (hey, there were limited options), hoping not to sit near a window. The sky was pretty freaky for the next 20 minutes or so, but no tornado, at least not where we were.
After that, the weather was over and it was just the aftermath. ("Just" she says...) There were a quarter million people without power, downed trees everywhere and radio announcers calling what had happened before we arrived as a 'gustado' - a tornado level blast of wind that just punches through an area without the spinning action of a tornado. And the weather for the next few days?
Hot, hot, hot and humid to match - upper nineties for both temperature and humidity. The power company was working at breakneck speed to get power back on, but with all the downed trees it was complicated work and they're still at it now. They called in help from multiple surrounding states and meanwhile, everyone sweated, food in refrigerators went bad, and the ever bad traffic situation in the are continued to be bad.
With no power on, there was also no coffee, and no warm water for showers (and in spite of the heat, a cold shower does my arthritis no good - and the humidity was already making me miserable enough), and on Thursday, we headed up to the hospital for what I'd already known was going to be a difficult day. (Boredom is the real killer).
No need to go into all that - I was lugging medical records, a book to read and left with those plus a lot of meds, and braved the Metro to meet up with M after he got off work and the heat was oppressive.
Friday, was more of the same, only at the house... no power, hot, able to read but bored (the heat was too much to really pay attention to anything 'deep' and by now it was impossible to keep drinks cool or otherwise ease the sticky hotness. Around 4pm, the power people showed up and began working and yay! About 3 hours later there was power again - the tree was also still across the yard, so M's got that to sort out - but power! Electricity is a beautiful thing.
Saturday, we both lazed about a bit before heading back to my area - and I was very ready to head home. There were still a lot of areas without power, and the temperatures were over 100F in DC. But the drive back was much easier than the trip back had been. We made a stop at M's office to pick up meds of mine he'd put in a fridge there (that was another challenge - very expensive injectables that had to be kept cool in a situation with no power!) and drove west.
And there, I was greeted with a wonderful surprise - my marvelous children, even not being in much communication with me (no power quickly meant no phone access as he has a wireless landline and the cell went dead and couldn't be recharged), they'd decided to surprise me by cleaning the house top to bottom, and had dinner waiting when we arrived.
Home, great kids, coffee and AC and it's a beautiful day today (hot, muggy, but nearly as oppressive as it is out in DC). And life is good.
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