DEALING WITH THE HEAT… & more (Part 174h)
This
wasn’t the first time I’d been caught working on the race car when a
thunderstorm came up. The previous Summer the same thing had happened
and I pretty much knew where I’d find Elle and the kids when I got home.
The storm was headed to the East and I was headed West which meant that
by the time I pulled up to the garage the worst of it had passed. It
was raining fairly heavily but the wind had abated and the lightning was
only visible off to the East. As soon as I left the garage I could see
that the electric power was off. I had to go past the Polish Catholic
Church which was always well lit but it was dark. The flashing stoplight
at the crossroad had also been out. With the house dark I took the
flashlight I always had in the dash compartment with me as I went
searching for Elle and the kids. My hunch had been right and they were
huddled in the basement with a flashlight. Their reasoning was they
wouldn’t see the lightning and the thunder would be muffled while down
there. It was an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ belief.
By
the time I’d gotten home the temperature had started to drop. Before
leaving I’d checked the thermometer on the patio and it was still over
90. On the way into the house I checked it again and saw it was down
into the 70’s. Another thing was that the air seemed ‘fresher’. It took
me a few minutes to persuade the ‘crew’ to emerge from the cellar.
Before headed down there Elle had the presence of mind to shut the
windows so the house was not only hot but also stuffy. I checked outside
and the rain was coming almost straight down so I went around and
partially opened the windows facing East and South. The change in the
temperature was certainly refreshing. It was around 10pm by that time
and time for the girls to go to bed. However, they’d been traumatized to
the point that they wanted to sleep with Elle. I was all for telling
them an emphatic “NO!” but before I did Elle came up with the idea of
sleeping on the living room floor, once again, with her sleeping on the
sofa. I kept my ‘cool’ and told them it was a “one time thing” and not
to expect it with every thunderstorm. I couldn’t see their faces all
that well to observe how they took it but didn't care.
With no
electricity we had to conserve our water since we used a well for it
and needed power to pump it up to the holding tank. They’d been through
the 'drill' a number of times in the past so pretty much understood. Elle
went through the same thing about using the refrigerator. The door was
to be opened only by her. By the time they lay down on top of their
sleeping bags I could feel the change in the air in the house. But, it
was still around the mid 80’s and not conducive for sleeping. Elle moved
her rubber pad and beach towels to the living room sofa and I inherited
the den couch for sleeping. It was a minor upgrade for me. Because
sleep was hard to come by Elle had managed to stay dry by visiting the bathroom often. I remember her
walking around in just her panties as she checked on the girls and
wanted, oh so bad, to get picture of her… but didn’t even bring the
subject up.
I was awake before 6am and knew I needed a
shower. Because of working on the race car motor the night before I was
filthy. I remember wondering how extensive the power outage was and how
many employees would be faced with the same situation. As soon as I got
up I went out to assess the damage and was pleasantly surprised that
there were no big tree limbs down. Lots and lots of twigs and leaves
were spread all over the lawn. I knew that would be time consuming to
clean up as I made my way to the back of the property. I stood on the
property line at the edge of the farm and considered myself lucky. Elle
was up when I got back inside. The outside temperature was in the low 70
degree range and inside it was still around 80… but, without the humidity,
tolerable. That got me to thinking about the bank. The only outside air
we got other than from the heating and air conditioning was the two
doors on the street level. We'd been borderline ’suffering’ before but now, if the power was
off, it would be a major problem. It was not something to look forward
to.
When Elle got up she asked if I’d checked on the
neighbor’s house. I hadn’t and never gave it a thought. She ‘suggested’
that it might be a neighborly thing to do. I’d run some water and rubbed
myself down to get off the surface dirt before getting dressed for
work. As you know, the normal access to their yard was through the
boxwood hedge. However, with the rain during the night and the fact that
I’d not trimmed the opening in a while I didn’t want to use that way to
do my inspection so went out the front door and over to their house via
the front yard. There was a large Willow tree that I’ve written about
from time to time that straddled the property line but was mostly on
their property. A large limb had broken off in a Winter storm and had
done damage to the Northwest corner of the house. I’d hoped it would
serve as a hint that the tree should go but as I approached their house,
there it stood.
As I’ve previously written, both
houses were built around the same time and the similarities inside were
many. However, our house was shingled and for the other one they'd used stucco.
The stucco was painted with a beige color with the trim a chocolate
brown. The house stood out from most others in the area because of it. Once past the tree and
where I could see the house I had to stop and stare. Willow trees are
notoriously ‘dirty’ and as I looked at the house I couldn’t believe what
I was seeing. The house had more green (from the leaves) than beige.
The windows were the same. The leaves looked like they were glued on.
Once over that surprise I continued on around to the back. There was
nothing that stood out as being a problem. I was about to retrace my
steps when I saw what looked like trash hung up on a couple of the
bushes in the very back part of the yard. I wanted to get going to work
to see what I’d be faced with but stopped and headed towards the back yard.
After a few steps I recognized the ‘trash’ as clothes and looked to my
right and had my answer. When the storm started I remembered it came
with a burst of air followed by continuing high winds for a period of
time. The washline that I’d taken the picture of was now in total
disarray. Walking towards it I remembered the panties that were right in
front and only saw one and it was hanging by a single clothespin. Some of
the clothes that had been hung behind them were scattered on the ground
for about ten feet. I couldn’t believe that I’d forgotten about them
after taking the picture. I only stood there looking at the mess for a
few seconds and then retreated towards the bush where I’d first spied the
‘trash’. I pulled a pair of panties out and stood there trying to
decide what to do as time was flying by and I knew I had to get going.
With the very wet panties in my hand I decided to leave all the rest of
the wash as it was and head off to work. I did stop and stick my head in
the kitchen door telling Elle that there was no damage. She waved me a
‘good bye’ and I was off.
To be continued…
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