July 24 - Lisa's Musings (on not having electricity for 24 hours) and Every Day Life

I almost broke my streak of 300-plus consecutive blogging posts today. And had it happened, it would have been Mother Nature's fault, not mine.

At 5:59 Friday night, the lights went out, and it was 24 hours before they came back on.

That's 24 hours without air conditioning, water, lights ... it was ugly.

I do not rough it well. Especially without hot coffee.

This was the first time that the lights have been out for more than a few hours since I moved to this house more than 10 years ago. The last time was when Richard Hatch won the first "Survivor," and I missed it. I was not pleased.

So, as you know, I got five new appliances yesterday and thanks to a nasty storm that came through here, I was not able to use them.

So, picture this ... I have company here from out of town to show at the dog show in Ann Arbor this weekend. She arrives with two dogs and within two hours, we have no electricity. No shower. No water. No air conditioning. No way to make food for dinner.

In the meantime, my friend Nancy was already without power and I invited her here so she could do her wash -- in the new washer and dryer. Well, right after she arrived, the storms came in, the place went dark.

We now had five dogs here, and miracle of miracles, none of them had any storm fears, which is a good thing, because we all headed to the three-season porch to watch Mother Nature's light show, and what an amazing one it was.

We survived that night -- thanks to some high-powered flashlights, open windows and a nice breeze.

And today, in the dark, we got ready and headed to the Ann Arbor Dog Training Club where my friend had a great day -- finishing her flat-coated retriever's championship with two group placements.

And where neither of my dogs did a darn thing.

But the good news ... at about 6 p.m. tonight -- there was light.

And I got to give my new dishwasher a whirl.