Fireworks and the Fourth of July are two of my favorite things. It’s all about summer, a bang-up party and living in the greatest country ever.
Mom Nature got my holiday off to an early start last Friday, with some fireworks of her own. In fact that storm had so much fireworks, otherwise known as lightning, and waterworks, I couldn’t get out of my pickup. Of course storm started while I was on the way home from the grocery store, with food in front thank goodness. That didn’t matter too much since Mom Nature dumped so much water on us, sideways with the wind thrown in, that it actually rained into the cab of my pickup truck.
Finally at home, I decided it would be more prudent to just stay in the pickup. That’s because it was raining so hard I thought I might drown just trying to get to the door, and the fireworks, or lightning, was cracking so fast and furious, I thought I might be struck down. If I thought I was gonna stay dry, I was sadly mistaken. The buckets of rain still managed to infiltrate my truck so much it was raining inside. The old towel I keep on hand in the cab (cause you never know when a dog, cat or other pet might need to join you for a ride) was quickly soaked after I stuffed it around the truck door. Better it than me.
When the downpour seemed to lessen, I made a dash for it. Oops. There are worse situations than being stuck in a wet truck cab. That would be in a house with no electricity, meaning no lights, no tv, and no air conditioning. I guessed that Nature’s storm had turned out the lights, and I didn’t care too much. I didn’t care too much because I like my back porch, and that’s where I went to wait out the darkness. I took note on my watch that it was 4:30 p.m.
Back on the porch I was enjoying myself, feeding the birds, consoling the dog Reba who is terrified of storms, and just watching it rain. It was nice. It was nice for a long time. It was nice clear up to dark at 9 p.m. Well, I did get just a bit bored and called the power company, who reported, yes, I was in the outage zone. Like I didn’t know that. All I wanted to know was could they estimate when I might NOT be in the outage zone.
So I resigned myself to more evening on the porch with candles lit. That is until I heard a strange noise in the dark. A quick reconnoiter of the yard revealed a rabbit, who was watching me closer than I was watching him. That’s OK, I thought. I can handle a rabbit.
When the possum showed up, I had second thoughts. It wasn’t a very big possum and it came sauntering around the left side of the porch, looking for Reba’s left-over dog food, I’m sure. It just wanted a free meal. I, on the other hand, wanted no part of that half-grown possum. So I yelled at it. I stomped my foot at it. I waved my arms at it. I did this all from 20 feet away. I don’t like possums. They scare me.
Little possum took the hint, turned around, and sauntered off. Note: It did not run off. It sauntered. Apparently my physical threats don’t mean much to a possum. But that was all I needed. I kept wondering what else was going to walk, stroll or crawl into my light-less life on the back porch. Another note: Reba, the yard dog, slept through the entire possum encounter, curled up on the back porch, not 10 feet away. No help there.
I went inside, lit candles, found a musical media that operated on batteries, and tried to wait out the no-power evening, in a hot house. Even fell asleep once. At midnight, power was restored after nearly eight hours, and I rejoiced. Even sent text messages to all my children. Then cranked up the AC, and went to bed. All in all, not a bad evening.
We hope the same for you. . .a safe and happy Fourth of July, and a possum-less evening on the back porch.
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