And if you live in the Midwest, then I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. So many storms ripped through Missouri and Illinois yesterday, it was insane. But the storms aren't the only thing that transpired last night, there were several other events that took place. The question is, should I start by talking about running into a tree or killing the armadillo?
Lets rewind to 6:30 yesterday evening...
LaVaughn and I had just enjoyed a nice BBQ at our aunts earlier that evening, then we went home and sat down for a nice round of Left 4 Dead 2. We were right in the middle of Hard Rain when the phone started ringing. It was our aunt saying that we needed to come to her house because it was supposed to get bad. And being that we don't have a basement, it was the smart thing to do. And naturally, we started gathering up our animals. LaVaughn shoved the girls in a bonding pouch and pu them around her neck, then she was off to collect our rats and put them in carrier. During this time, I had shoved all three boys in a pouch and was off to put the cats in a pet taxi. That was real fun, considering the pet taxi was only big enough for one large cat or two small. And we all know Zoe's not exactly on the small size, hehe. Anyway, then LaVaughn grabbed Robbie and put him in a carrier that was, again, too small. At the time, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. We had all the animals in carriers, Milla on her leash and we were good to go. Then we look over and see John, just sitting there staring at us. So we drop everything and go grab him. Then we were off.
Not too much happened between the hours of 6:45 and 7:20. We all mostly just sat around and watched the news. The reporters were shooting warnings and watches out the ass, so it had everyone a little worked up. I was more worried about all the movies that we left at our place then the actual storm, but I got over. I stayed outside most of the time and watched the clouds swiftly go over us. Then is started raining and I couldn't stay out any longer. Around this time, I think it may have been 7:25, it started pouring and looked to be around 9:00 at night. That's when we decided to take cover. Then the wind started blowing. And I'm not talking about a nice summer breeze, it was going at about 65-70MPH. Just before we took cover, I managed to open the door and peek outside. And what I saw was something you would see in a post-apocalyptic comic book. It was insane! No longer than I had the door open, I had people yelling at me to shut the door and come on. By the time we got to a safe place, the electricity had flickered on and off until it couldn't go anymore, that's when I really got worried. We all sat in the room for about 10 minutes with not just Milla, but Fletcher and Carly as well. I think it's safe to say that the room was packed and extremely stinky. But after everything settled down, we decided to go home.
I think it's around 7:50 now. As soon as we got home, we decided to call the electric company and inform them that our power was out. And like any other time, they said they knew and was doing the best they could. So we waited. We sat on the couch, staring at nothing until one of us decided to glance up and look at the many scented candles that were lit around the room. You can imagine the lovely scents that were filling the air, but even the nice smells didn't keep our minds off of the fact that the electric was off. Around 9:00, we had both made our way to the floor where we rolled around and cried for about 15 minutes, then we were out. Luckily, I woke up 30 short minutes later with a massive headache and an urge to drink a nice, cold soda. LaVaughn got up not long after that and joined me on the couch. We began to just stare into space with absolute boredom taking over our entire bodies. Then around 10:20, I had the great idea to go to town and hit up a convenience store. So we did.
Not sure if you know or not, but we live down a county road. And like all the other county roads, ours is lined with trees. As we were driving, we didn't notice too much damage, just a few limbs here and there. The further we got, to more we saw. Nothing severe or anything, just larger limbs. Then towards the end of the road, there's half a tree laying there. Luckily, I was able to move it with no problem, then we went on our way. Then we got on the highway, where everything appeared to be clear. We drove for a mile or two with no problem, then out of nowhere, there would be trees that had been cut up. They were pretty much out of the road, but there was still some that weren't. After we drove a little more, we passed a car that nearly ran us off the road and wouldn't dim their headlights. And just after they passed us where we could see again, there was this huge tree just night in the middle of our lane. I swerved to miss is, but I still hit some of it. Luckily, we just hit branches and not the actual tree trunk. After that, we mostly just ran over a few branches. Then about halfway to town, it starts storming like crazy! It was storming and raining so bad, that I had to slow down to about 20. I couldn't see 2 feet in front of the car, it was crazy. It finally slacked off enough to where I could speed up to about 40. And as soon as I do, BAM! There was a huge, dead dog laying in the middle of the road. There was no way I could've gone around it so I just had to run over the poor thing. Whenever we got just outside of town, we noticed that all the street lights were on, which was awesome. Then we got into town and it was pitch black! We passed the first gas station and it was dead, then the second one, it was dead as well. Then we passed the one that stays open 24hrs and it was dead as well. We were completely pissed, but decided to drive on through town to see if anything else was open. Being that it was 10:50, we didn't figure anything was. One of the gnarliest things about driving through town, there was no stop lights. They were just dead and you just had to chance it. Loads of fun, let me tell you. As we got drove a little further, we started to see street lights. That's when we saw a gas station that was actually open. We ended up with gas, soda and sunflower seeds, then we were off.
The drive back wasn't so bad, it had pretty much stopped doing anything, just a little rain here and there. But man was it foggy! I had trouble seeing the road several times, but it didn't last too long. We were driving along when out of nowhere, an armadillo decided to cross the road and stop right in the middle. I swerved as fast as I could, but there was no way I could've missed it. I'm like 95% sure that I ran over it's head, so hopefully the poor little guy didn't suffer. I felt so bad about that. We made it almost home without any other problems, but out of nowhere, there was another damn tree down in the middle over the road. And again, I swerved to miss it. This time, I actually did miss something that I swerved to miss! After that, we made it home.
This is where the fun starts. It's around 11:30 and still no sign of the electricity coming back on, so we decided to turn my computer on and watch a movie. My battery was only 90% charged, so that only gave us a little over an hour of life. But that was enough for a while. And just like clockwork, it died about an hour in. Then LaVaughn gave me the battery off of her computer so we could finish the rest of the movie. We were watching Welcome To The Dollhouse in case you're wondering. By the time we were done, it was around 1:15. Then we sat and sat and sat. We both actually passed out again. I'm guessing it's around 1:45 now, not too sure. Then around 2:20, LaVaughn was like, "Did you hear that?" I replied, "No, what did you hear?" She replied back, "It sounded like something growling." I didn't hear anything until a few minutes later and there it was. It was our cat, Una, growing at the end of the hall. By this time, we knew what it was, she had caught a mouse. We we run down the hall, greet her by saying, "Good girl." and then make her drop the mouse into a little carrier. Luckily, the mouse wasn't seriously injured, just a little banged up. We gave him some of John's food, some treats and a toilet paper roll and then went on our way. We'll probably release him at the graveyard in a couple days. Until then, we've decided to call him Seamus. After that, we just sat on the couch talking and playing the alphabet name game. We went through: animals, names, colors, body parts, movies, song titles and then some. I think it's safe to say we were on the brink of being bored to death! Then around 5:30 this morning, we went to bed.
It has been such an exhausting night, I'm just so thankful that it's over. I seriously hate when the electricity goes off. I think I would rather chop off a finger then sit in the dark with no TV. Anyway, I guess that's all for now. I hope no one got seriously injured from the storms we had. My heart goes out to those that did. Until next time, you know where to find me...
Love & Peace
-Megan
Song of the day: Feelin' Alright by Joe Cocker
Here are a few pics from yesterday and last night:
Around 7:00
Around 7:20
Around 7:25
The Calm After The Storm
Seamus
