I awakened to a very foggy morning, some of the thickest I have seen this year. I don't like driving in fog but it sure makes for pretty viewing in the mornings.
Being distracted with putting up groceries the changing skies didn't even catch my attention until I heard the distant rolling thunder and then the notification on the weather app signaling the approach of rain. When I finally looked at the weather app there was the banner of a special weather statement scrolling across the top of the phone. With a greater frequency the notifications of lightning came with a greater intensity, one notification said lighting detected 0 miles from your location. Whoa! We received a nice little rain shower and this is the first storm while being at home. It skirted our area and we only got a fraction of the storm. There was one lighting strike that was rather close and I think it blew a transformer nearby because I heard that familiar popping sound. We experienced a couple of electrical surges which by the end of the evening I referred to it as a surgey thing, and then just Sergio Mendez and Brazil 66. It was some good porch rocking after the storms. The temps dropped and that September fragrance in the mountains filled the air. Off in the distance the sound of mountain music, chainsaws, wafted across the porch. After coming in the house the sound of a heavy equipment truck sounded nearby. Sure enough, the fake log cabin house had a huge truck and cherry picker with linemen working and tree men cutting down fallen limbs and trees. We retained power, thanks be to God, and everyone west of them lost power.
How did I know that twenty three homes lost power, because I am now on the Duke Energy outage text alert. I discovered this on Thursday night when the power went out around 2:00 in the morning. The sound of several surges woke me up and I scrambled to get my reading and flashlight ready for use. It wasn't too much longer and the darkness fell. So to trusty Google I went and found the outage map and low and behold a way to be notified of what was going on and the estimated time that service would be restored. The power was restored after about an hour.
Last night I streamed the Houston news on channel 11 and 13. This is the first time I have watched a news cast from Houston since arriving in the mountains. After watching part of the funeral service for Deputy Darren Goforth who was killed execution style while he was pumping gas and just because he was a law enforcement officer, I knew I wanted to see a recap of this difficult and hard morning for so many. There are no words as I watched and then read about the day when 11,000 people showed up to honor a man whose life was cut short too soon and in such a stupid way. The poignant moment and there were many but when his best friend stood on the stage and talked about his friend, who had worked hard all his life, many times holding down three jobs and the sense of humor they shared grabbed my heart strings, which my tears must be attached to those strings. There were many good words and thoughts expressed by all those who participated in the service but it was the words of a friend that comforted the widow's heart and expressed who her husband was. What a gift that man gave to her. It was just this week as I filled up my car, a police officer was at the pump behind me. My plan was to finish up and then walk over to this officer and offer to pay for his gasoline or treat him to an Icee or anything of his choice in the Shell market. I turned back to approach him and he was gone. I wish I had noticed him earlier in the whole filling up the car process. After watching the news, as I turned off the light the thought came, we call the mountains home but today I was especially glad to be able to say I am from Houston, Texas. And yes, if you know me...I did think of that song by Archie Bell; "we're from Houston Texas and we can dance and sing as good as we want." Which is also a truth...
No comments:
Post a Comment