Erratic weather

In January, when Paul and I were here to get a feel for the area, I remember being in the car with a realtor.  We were driving, and all of the sudden the skies turned from blue to black, and it started raining.  Her fingers grasped the wheel, white knuckled grasp.  She said she really hated driving in this weather, and Paul and I looked at each other and laughed.  We were Oregonians, we knew rain, and well at the time there wasn't a lot of it.  But to the relator, she said it was a lot.  She went on to say the weather here was so erratic, and changed in a matter of minutes.

She wasn't kidding.

Now I know why she white knuckled the steering wheel that day, and further explained the erratic weather here to us.
 

It was blue skies, 88 degrees on Saturday.  All of the sudden, the skies turned black around 5pm.  Rain started pouring, the winds picked up to 70mph.  Looking out our front windows we couldn't see anything.

Ryk, oblivious to what was going on outside, was trying on his new soccer gear for me to see.  Paul and Ryk had just gotten back with his stuff.  "Check out these crazy socks, they are itchy but dad says if I want to play, I just hafta wear them."

Then the thunder started.  Paul and I tried to remember what we had learned (in elementary school probably, we are cool like that) about counting the time between the thunder rumble and when the lightning strikes - one.one.thousand, two - and it happened.  The counting got to where it was just the loudest thunder rumble, and then a huge flash of lightning.  The lightning made our dark, powerless house light up.  Our crazy kids just wanted to stand in the window sills watching it, and so because we are use to Oregon thunderstorms, we let them.

We all stood in the living room, starring out the window in awe of this "incredible storm" per Ryker.  It didn't dawn on me that we probably should be in the basement until I thought I saw a car shake.

My eyes weren't mistaking me, the car did shake, but with the sideways rain coming down at several inches an hour, and the crazy winds what I didn't see was the reason the car moved.

 We were all just standing there, in the living room.  Oblivious as to what was actually going on outside. 

 Red brick house in this picture, yep that is where we live.  The red taillights of the  van in this picture is our van.  The luck of it all, thankfully Paul and Ryk left to go get his soccer stuff when they did.  It put them home just minutes before this storm, and no joke, the car that has the tree on top of it, that is exactly the spot where our Nissan was parked before P and R left to get the soccer stuff.

Other pictures, from around the area we live.  All within about a 10 mile radius of our house.

This is the gas station where I pumped my gas for the first time 3 weeks ago...

Thus the reason why about 112,000 people were without power for a couple days.

We now know the importance of an emergency supply kit.  Our power was out for a long time, and once it was restored, it went out again.

We were not prepared in the slightest, no candles or flashlights.

My big concern without electricity was Jovie's milk in the freezer going bad.  It was quite the ordeal to get my stock of breast milk shipped here to us (thanks so much M and E), and with me going back to work on Monday we really need it!  So once the storm passed Paul went out in search of ice (to keep the breastmilk frozen while we waited for our power to be restored, and also find something to eat for dinner.

P waited in a line that started out the door at McD's to get us some food.  According to LG&E pre-recorded voice message to help deal with the overpouring calls to report power outage, approxiametly 112,000 customers were without power.  Apparently everyone of these customers decided to hit up McD's for dinner.

So P and I had the most romantic dinner ever, McD's in the pitch black of our home at 9pm.

We woke up the next morning, still no power, and a fridge full of spoiled food.

So this weather here, erratic.

We're not in Oregon anymore...