All this week we've had unbearable hot, humid weather. The temperature outside has been in the upper 90s, and with the humidity, it feels like it's 110! As frequently happens during super hot, humid weather, severe storms have been popping up around the midwest, usually in the evenings. Last night a big storm developed north of us, and within an hour had descended on the KC area. Tons of lightning, black skies, it looked ugly. I got home from work around 7pm, and Joe had gone to spin class and then an event promoting the KC Marathon this fall. Soon after I got home, it started pouring, and the winds picked up. Estimates I saw were 60-70 mph. In our neighborhood, all of the power lines are above ground, so wouldn't you know it, at 7:30 we lost power. I checked outside, and everyone on the opposite side of the road still had lights on, so I was hopeful that ours would come back on quickly.
Joe came home around 8:15, and the power was still off. Knowing that everything in the fridge and freezer was subject to going bad, (and having no way, other than the outdoor grill, to cook) we decided to go out for dinner. That took about an hour after trying to decide what we wanted, and discovering that our first choice had basically closed the kitchen already. When we returned home after 9:30 and still had no power, we realized that it may not be coming back for a while. Unfortunately for us, the brief rain showers and storm didn't drop the temperature very much, and the forecast was for the temp to creep back up as night went on. Joe decided to set up an air mattress in the basement. Sleeping in the dank basement on an air mattress sounded like a good idea because it was so much cooler down there, but after sore shoulders, necks, arms, etc, I headed back upstairs in the middle of the night to crawl into our much more comfortable bed. The worse part was not being able to turn on a fan and circulate any area, as there was no wind outside and the ambient air temperature just kept getting warmer and muggier.
Neither of us got much sleep, and as of 11 am the power was still off this morning. Our dogs got to stay at my sister's house, since we didn't want to leave them outside (today's high was forecast to be 96) and couldn't trust that the power would be restored soon enough to cool the inside of the house down. Luckily, when I got home tonight, the power was back on - I definitely wasn't ready to brave another night of no power and no air conditioning! Boy, do we have a greater appreciation for these modern conveniences!
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