Frazzled on the Fourth

The 4^th of July is normally my all-time favorite holiday, but this year’s celebration was slightly tainted. 

It all started on Sunday, July 1st.  Hubs and I were headed over to the local water hole (i.e. the park district’s outdoor water park facility) to meet up with his brother’s family.  As we drove over, I noticed the sky to the west was looking dark, with black, heavy clouds bearing down on us.  I sent a quick text to my sister-in-law to see if they were still planning on coming, but when we pulled into the parking lot we saw they had beaten us there.  My sister-in-law was already at the front desk checking to see if the pool was going to remain open or not.  It wasn’t.  Waiting in the parking lot, we could see the guards scooting guests out of the gates.  As one particularly frantic family hurried past us to their SUV, we could hear the mom explaining to her kids that a big storm was headed our way.  

On that ominous note, Hubs and I headed back out of the lot.  Since we weren’t going swimming, we decided to drive over to Walgreens to look for a Redbox movie.  Hubs had agreed to attend a party later in the afternoon at one of his co-worker’s houses, but with the change of plans-- decided to leave right away.  The party was, as he explained it: “Just a bunch of guys throwing bags.  You wouldn’t like it.”  That being said, I was going to sit at home with the dogs and watch a chick flick.  Unfortunately (and later I would think fortunately), there were no good movies available. 

As we turned to walk out of the store, the lights started flickering.  That is when we realized that it had started raining.  And it was raining hard.  It was a downpour mixed with hurricane force winds.  Through the sliding glass doors, we could see the trees in the parking lot being blown to 90 degree angles, coupon papers were whipping across the blacktop, and the street lights were rocking back and forth- suspended from their wires over the intersection.

So we did what any normal, crazy people would do—we ran for our car.  In the 30 seconds that we were probably outside, we got completely soaked.  It felt like we had gone swimming after all.  The 2 minute drive home was just as intense with limited visibility, but we made it.  After another crazy rain-dash into the house, we both breathed a sigh of relief.

The thunder and lightning started shortly after we made it inside.  And the day, which had started out in the mid 90s, had plummeted quickly into the 70s.  I hastened to shut off the air conditioners and remove my wet clothes.  I was freezing and ended up wearing my favorite old pair of sweatpants and a Wheaton College sweatshirt that I found in the hidden recesses of our walk in closet.

When Hubs came upstairs to change out of his wet clothes, I took a moment to peak out our master bedroom windows.  I was just in time to see our neighbors big trash can blow down the street.  The rain was hitting the windows in sheets and the wind was the fiercest I’ve ever seen.  I turned to Hubs and asked him if he thought this was a tornado—Should we be in the basement?  He said we were fine… and then the power went out.  And then the quarter-sized hail started.  And then a hefty branch on our tree out front proceeded to twist off.  And then 3 trees fell in our backyard.

It was a mighty storm.  I believe the weatherman later reported that our town had 85-90 mile per hour winds.  It wasn’t hard to believe because stepping outside our house was like entering into a war zone.  There were branches, limbs, and debris everywhere.  In fact, we couldn’t even see the grass in our backyard- not with the 3 fallen trees and all of the branches.  We later discovered there were 2 power lines down on our street alone, with hundreds more down across the area.   We were lucky in that our house and car escaped damage.  Many weren’t so lucky.

It took us 2 days to pick up our backyard.  We had to use a chain saw to cut up all the timber.  I actually found sticks that had been shot into the ground like arrows, buried 3-4 inches into the soil.  Thankfully, although the garden took a beating, most of the plants survived the onslaught.

The hardest part for us, was that we lost our electricity for 3.5 days.  We finally got it back at 3:30pm on the 4^th of July.  And of course it was in the high 90s each day we were without it.  Unfortunately, we ended up losing a lot of the food we had in our fridge, but we were able to save everything in our deep freezer with the help of ice bags.

Overall, it was hot and gross.  As much as I want to be environmentally friendly and eco-conscious, I am so glad I have air conditioning and fans.  We also own a generator now and I am grateful for that as well.