June 29 - July 1, 2012

It's hard to complain about the Great Outage, because I happen to know it was harder for a lot of people than it was for us. We didn't lose any of our cars, our house, none of us were injured...we weren't even on our Independence Day Weekend vacation and then got evicted from our hotel because there was no power like I'm sure happened to a lot of folks.

That said...I mean...no AC? On the hottest weekend of July? Can I squink by with a "bummer."? lol

DZ's parents arrived at around 10pm on Friday night, and we'd unloaded their luggage, sat down in the living room, and had just started eating our orange sherbet, when the wind started blowing so hard, it made the house creek. In the flashes of lightning, we could see the trees tossing side to side, back and forth, like a bunch of wild, club-hopping tree-teens.

Then the lights flickered out and flickered back on.

We laughed. "Woah! What a storm!"

Then the lights died.

Dad Z said, "It sure is hard to eat sherbet when you can't see it."

Now-- it was Dad & Mom Z's first visit with us since DZ and I got married, so I'd been nervous about two things: trying to be a half the host Mom Z is famous for being back in Bryson City, and figuring out what to serve for dinner while they were there. At least I'd figured out which Fiesta plates to use (the peacock and lemon grass look nicest with the burnt orange tablecloth they gave us. what? I'm not type A, how dare you. :P )

So there I was, using my mobile phone as a flashlight, hunting down guest sheets, pillows and towels, so we could set up the parents on the futon in the basement where it would stay coolest without the AC.

Welcome to our home, y'all! :D lol...

Everyone was in decent spirits, however, and I think we all enjoyed the challenge of hunting around in the dark for everything and spending an evening visiting by candle light.

candle-lit Boggle. so romantic. :P

The next day, the house was still quiet. I never realized how much a house subconsciously reminds me of a living thing until all the power was gone and somehow it felt like a giant animal that stopped breathing. We had grapefruit and granola for breakfast, neither of which required opening the great cold air vault that was now our refrigerator. :P


We then unloaded all my left-over-from-home stuff!

...the house really was company-clean before, honest. :P

The Z parents also were kind enough to do a bed-swap with us! We gave them the mahogany-colored frame we'd bought off one of DZ's ex-housemates, and they gave us their Pottery Barn-inspired frame. A happy trade for all. <3

^ old bed, new bed ^

Our original plan had been to re-paint the front of the house while Dad and Mom Z were there, and since it was a decently cool and breezy morning, we decided to at least start on that. We'd just finished the first coat as the sun came over the ridge of the house, and the temperature shot from "aaah, a balmy 70-degree morning" to "wow. 90. quitting now."

taking advantage of DZ's distracted-by-painting-tude to photograph him. 

painting-ness

By the time we'd cleaned our brushes and fled indoors, it was pushing 100, and the breeze had shriveled up and died. :P We ran tree branches and uprooted shrubs to the dump, and then trolled around town looking for a store that still had ice, half because we needed it, and half because we didn't want to get out of the air conditioned car. lol

is there anything better than watermelon on a hot day?
i submit that there is not.

Then I got to serve my first dinner-to-the-in-laws: perishables from our refrigerator on paper plates. I decided we'll get out the seasoned fish fillets and the pretty plates next visit. ;)

The original plan for Sunday was:

• get up early
• go to service with Uncle Jack & Aunt Bev at their church in Maryland
• go back to Uncle Jack & Aunt Bev's house for lunch and games
• maybe head back home in time for Harvest at 7

However, Sunday went like this:

• slept in cause none of the churches had power
• had some devotions in the basement where it was cool
• went to cousin Darin & Charity's house in Maryland (because they had power and are amazingly flexible and generous and pretty) where we met up with Uncle Jack & Aunt Bev, who also lost their power
• had lunch and games
• went out for dinner at Ledo's House of Truly Amazing Pizza (actually it's just "Ledo's Pizza", I added the "House of Truly Amazing" because it's true)

It really was a splendid afternoon/evening; we all felt like it couldn't have worked out better, and by the time we got home, we'd quite forgotten we didn't have power. Until we walked into our living room, which was 95 degrees and sticky with humidity.

That's when we remembered our dear friends, Liz, Marianne and KP.

Now-- Liz, Marianne and KP are three vivacious, lovely, parade-float-worthy gals who live just a hop skip and a jump down 29 from us. They love to host people at their house and give them snacks and ice tea and things. They offered for us to come over if we were interested. We love them. ...and their power was also working, but I just want to point out that any evening is a good evening to spend with the girls of 5 Doors Down. It's just this was an ESPECIALLY good evening. ;)

Dad & Mom Z, Dan, a big, fat watermelon (our snack contribution) and I arrived at their house in time for the last five minutes of Pirates of the Caribbean, followed by the 2012 Olympics Gymnastics trials.

aren't they cute??

I was having the best time, watching them twist and twirl through the air like the little kids you see on the trampolines at the mall. What grace they have! What poise, what focus. What fun it must be to have such flexible limbs and weightless bodies!

And then 22-year-old Nastia Liukin fell flat on her face and the whole thing looked completely different. Suddenly they were sparkly, lovely young girls who were risking life and limb to win a medal. Hurling themselves through the air with only fingertips and perfect timing to keep them from flying away like origami butterflies in a strong wind. Suddenly, they were on the brink of not just crushing their dreams, but being crippled for life.

Whose idea was gymnastics???? Don't they LIKE little girls and happiness? :P

That said, we had a great time watching the trials; every girl was wildly talented, and even the ones who fell took it with grace. It made me want to go buy a sparkly leotard.

We went home, and got ready for another night of heat and stickiness which, by this point, was even seeping into our dark, cool basement.

Then, just ten minutes before midnight, Dan and I were hunting around in the dark for our pajamas, and I looked up at the desk and said, “Dan, your computer’s on.”

Dan said, "The fan is on."

We both said, "The neighbors' lights are on!"

And there was much rejoicing. <3