Diary of a Freelancer

Last week… was ummm… interesting?

I took a long weekend last weekend to help my mom and dad paint their living room and dining room.* I also thought it would be fun to just get some family time in while my husband was away on a bachelor party.

Then Tuesday night we got an ice storm.** By Wednesday AM the ice was bad. It was covering trees and wires and the roads, and it was a little scary. Wednesday AM, 4 or 5 in the morning, these insane bright flashes go off outside of our house.*** Then a few hours later our power went out.  I stayed in bed a few hours longer hoping that when I woke up this would all be better. But when I finally woke up again the house was pretty chilly. I also realized I really didn't have much food that I could eat without heating it up and we had zero fire wood. This lead to a fun outing with my Aunt**** for lunch then a trip to a few stores for firewood with no luck. I finally had to call my Uncle and beg some firewood from him. When I got back to my house the worst tease ever happened. I get home and we have power! We have power!!!! It lasted a few hours until my husband and I sat down for dinner out it goes again. We can't even see the plates in front of us. It stayed out until sometime the next afternoon and thank god it stayed that time!

When our power finally went back on I knew most of my family still didn't have power so we invited everyone over and that night had a big slumber party. I do have to say that part was fun. Getting to hang out with everyone. And by Friday night they all had power back! We are so lucky though, there are still thousands in our area that don't…

So anyway, while little to no work was able to get done last week, at least I had fun with my family, and thank god we all have each other! And here's hoping and praying that the storm that's coming the middle of this week is nothing like we just had. And if it is, does anyone in the south want to adopt me?!?!

* (Fun or strange fact about me - I love to house paint. So we painted those rooms and I have to say they look awesome and I can't wait to see them finished! ) 

** (Another side note - you know those people who rush out to the store and make sure they have batteries, firewood, bread, water, peanut butter… etc? Yeah my husband and I aren't those people. We act like everyone else is over reacting and kinda think it's funny. Well this storm we learned why they do that) 

*** (I had to google what it was and what I found out is this: It's a power flash which happens a lot during extreme weather situations such as hurricanes, tornados, and my favorite, ice storms. They can also happen from damage or collapse of the wire lines/poles, or something resting on top of the wires… but the ice storm was relevant to me. So when wires short-out they produce these power flashes and they are extremely bright!! The article I read went on to tell me that if it happens once it can usually correct itself but if it happened twice or more your power will most likely go out…)

**** (I have four different relatives within a fifteen minute radius of my house and not one of us had power)