Thursday, July 2, 2009

Summer, wherefore art thou...so rainy? And creepy...

Another week has blown by - literally. It has been cold, gray, rainy, and crappy here for the past week. We had a severe thunderstorm on Friday that knocked our internet service and telephones out until Tuesday afternoon. (More on that in a bit). My basement is leaking, my hair is frizzy, my flowerbeds got crushed by hail yesterday, and I truly believe I am suffering from a bout of S.A.D. in the summer. Sheesh!

In Princess/Athlete land, no real news, but he does still hold out hope. He came over and did some yardwork for me (hacked the hedges I can't reach), and we had a long conversation about Transubstantiation, his doubts, my attempt at apologetics was good (he gets it now) but not good enough (he still doesn't believe it). All the while the Princess lolled about in her bikini with a magazine and a diet 7-up, trying to soak up whatever rays she could between cloudbursts. She is back to work after only a week off after exams - 6 weeks of geometry tutoring (so she can skip a grade and accelerate toward calculus her junior year - ugh!), cheerleading practice three times a week, and ballroom two hours a week. No rest for the wicked. :)

Okay - now for the creepy bit. When the storm hit, lightening struck on the block behind us, between our house and the river. One of those instantaneous flash/crash things. Very scary. Less than 30 seconds later, three of the baby's "noisy toys" - Elmo, a car dashboard, and a school bus that sings that song - all spontaneously started making sounds. None are electric, all require pushing and pulling to get the sounds going. All were in different spots in the living room, and the baby was in bed for his afternoon nap. The girls and I looked at each other, and all the "warning hairs" on the back of my neck stood up, as happens when I get the feeling we are not alone in the house. I decided we should all repair to the basement to wait out the storm. We shut off all the electronics at their various power strips, grabbed the baby out of bed and went down - just as another huge crash hit outside.

When we came up, we heard a blast of static and a screeching sound through the computer speakers. The ones that we shut off at the power strip before we went downstairs. Then we looked out and discovered that a tree directly across the street from our house had been split down the middle. Utility wires and one of our own trees kept it from hitting the house, but part of it did knock out a USPS box that had been anchored into the cement for decades, by the looks of it. Crews came and took down the tree. A near miss.

Rational me says the electricity in the air must have somehow triggered the toys. Not-so-convinced me wonders if we got some forewarning....so I said "thank you" out loud and then said my prayers.

Hmmmmm.......

We still are finding strange things - a few fuses to parts of the house that are rarely used were blown, and two of eight phone jacks were fried, as were our cordless phones (one base unit, two handsets).

Freaky.

How's your summer going?

5 comments:

Old Bob said...

Dear Mom of Princess,

I've been following the Saga of the Princess and the Athlete because in the fall of 1961 when I was a senior in high school, I was in the same position as the Athlete, maaaaadly in love with a young lady three years my junior. That was a while ago (to put it mildly) and so I did nothing at all: decided to wait till she was 21. By that time she was engaged and married. Ah, well . . .

Both of them and all of you are in my prayers. Especially too your Beloved: I take my hat off to all who serve; I never had to because I flunked the physical, but I have the highest respect for our guys and gals in uniform. My dad was a sergeant in the Army during WWII, my uncle was a gunner on a carrier in the Pacific, and my best buddy's dad was a combat soldier in the Philippines late in the Pacific war.

PS -- You're the mom and you know best, but if I were the Princess' grandpa, I'd tell her it's not smart to loll around in a bikini when the Athlete is present: I was young once.

Larry Denninger said...

Very freaky - if a midget ghost hunter comes to your house (a la Poltergeist), get very scared and go to a motel!

My summer has been boring by comparison - except for the chilly and rainy part.

Prayers for you!

gemoftheocean said...

Wow!!! I was going to ask you about your, er, special "vistor." We hadn't had a report about him as of late. He's probably been waiting for an opportunity to play with the young 'uns toys.

I wouldn't exactly leave any little plastic army men modeled on the Civil War out...now normally little army men are/were delightful to play with, but under the circumstances...

Have you ever had a Mass for the dead said for this soul? Any Latin Mass priests in your area? THey'd do one for you!

Packrat said...

Just to make you feel a *little* better - electrical storms hitting that close do cause crazy things to happen. When I was in the 9th grade, I was practicing the piano during a storm. I kept hearing other music and people talking. I finally figured out that the unplugged TV was broadcasting through the unplugged stereo speakers.

Also, next time be sure to unplug things from the walls...

Jane Lebak said...

What Packrat said. You have to physically unplug the things from the walls because that much electricity will zip right through your surge protector as if it's not even there.

And now, seriously, replace all the surge protectors because they're probably burnt out and aren't providing any protection any longer.