Mother Nature Strikes

Around 11:15 PM last night, a huge gust of wind came rolling down the ridge behind my house. Less than a minute later my power and cable went out and the wind got so loud that I thought a tornado was surely bearing down on us. Well, it wasn't a tornado, just a hellacious thunderstorm that raged for about an hour before fading away into stillness. The power stayed out until about 3:30 AM, which means I am plumb wore out today, to borrow a Southern-ism. (I didn't stay up waiting for it to come back; I just woke up when the power came back on and I had to get up to reset my alarm clock and turn off lights and the TV.)

More rain is expected throughout today and the rest of this week with chances for more thunderstorms, but I think really bad weather is over for now. What startled me was that we had absolutely no warning whatsoever. All was quiet and then BAM! Usually there's a rumble of thunder, some lightning, or at least a drop or two of rain. Even so, we managed to come out of it unscathed. Other counties were reporting wind damage and fallen trees. In Rutherford county, North Carolina, about sixty miles from here, two eighteen year-old girls are dead after a large tree fell over on their house. My thoughts go out to their family.

I occasionally complain about the lack of shade in my yard, but after last night I'm kind of glad there's not any trees near my house and that I've got a large open pasture behind me. About the worst that might happen is a cow or a goat gets flung against my house, which would take stronger winds than what we had last night. It would also mean they were too dumb to take shelter.

I was on WoW in the middle of our role-play night (which was winding down at that point at least) when it happened. I had no opportunity to warn that I might disappear or even mention the possibility of a storm. At least it waited until after all the plot information was discussed and between two of us, there should be a complete log available for guild records.

Ugh, I am so glad Wednesdays are "no homework" days for the kiddo. I seriously am too brain dead to help him do something as simple as two plus two.

Edit: Any NCIS fans here? Did you see last night's episode? Oh my god! Franks! P2P killer! Crying Ziva! New agent Barret being an idiot! And next week is the season finale! (I have to admit the opening two minutes when they showed Palmer first had me freaking out that something happened to Ducky.)

In Which I Gush About Mike Rowe

Dear Mike Rowe,

I've never let it be a secret that I have a huge crush on you, like so many of your fans. From the fact that you faked your way into the Baltimore Opera to your awesome, funny, and insightful Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs, there aren't many bad things I can say about you. Honestly, I thought there weren't any other reasons for me to love you, but today you went and proved me wrong.

Today you testified before the United States Senate about the importance of skilled labor to our infrastructure. You also used your testimony as a way to promote your new project with Discovery channel, Discover Your Skills, "a new multimedia public affairs campaign designed to address the growing decline in US skilled labor expertise." To top it off, your op-ed piece in Politico is nothing short of fantastic as well as humorous and completely "you" in tone.

As the daughter of a blue collar worker, I appreciate what you're doing and the way you're using your celebrity to improve the world around you. Keep up the good work.

Happy to be writing a positive open letter to a star for once,

Jade