Happy Sunday !
I live in North Carolina and it just so happened my part of the state was in the path of the storm Ian. Although it was hard for them to predict just how strong the storm would be by the time it got here, they thought it would be pretty bad. They have a habit of exaggerating to make news, so honestly, you never know if it will be anywhere near as bad as they say ..... or not, but you try to prepare a bit just in case.
One of my sisters that doesn't live far from me messaged me yesterday while I was still working and said her power was out and asked if mine was still on. At the time, it had rained off and on all day, the wind had been gusty, sometimes pretty strongly, but my power was still on. The trees thought it was a party and they danced and danced... sometimes wildly. I think they were enjoying it.
It was about an hour before my work would be done for the day, so I told God to at least let my power stay on till I was done with work at 5. I managed to finish work, clock out and about 8 minutes later, the power disappeared for about a minute, came back on for about 2 minutes and then disappear for good. Maybe I should have asked for a little more time ! ha ha... but I was so happy it had not cut my work time off early. That may sound funny, but I didn't want to make it up nor use my paid vacation time for it, so thankfully it worked out perfectly.
There was still a few hours of low daylight left though, so I could still see to get around in the house and do nearly whatever I wanted as long as it didn't need power. The only issue at that time was, that I am on a well, so no power, no water. Fortunately, Friday morning, after my shower, I had run my bathtub half full of water in case that very thing happened so I could still flush ! You never know what a luxury flushing is... until you can't !
Before it got dark I gathered my flashlights, extra batteries and big jar candles to a central counter. For a while after dark I read by flashlight then I lit a candle or two around for general lighting. They are in these big jars, so I put them on a hot pot holder wherever I sit them and I feel they are very safe since I am the only one here.
The storm became worse after dark. It poured rain, the wind blew and occasionally there were huge strong gusts that seemed to swirl around the house and sounded at times like it was ripping the siding right off. I was curious how it would end. By midnight it had calmed some and I think by about two it had mostly moved on.
A while after dark, I had become bored. I still had my phone charged for communication, but since I had no way to recharge, I communicated around a while, but wanted to make sure I didn't run it all the way down. About 9 pm I thought about going to bed, but I wasn't sleepy at all !
I thought of painting something with my limited light. I thought it sounded neat to paint with no power, but I really had nothing in mind. I pictured some fantastic abstract that would exude the stormy weather, the powerless state and painting by candle light. But alas.... nothing fantastic was in my brain.
This was the one really good light I had. My sister Vicky gave me this rechargeable combo fan/light this summer, more for the fan than the light, in case I lost power in the summer heat and had no A/C, I would still have a fan. Wasn't that the nicest thing?? I thought so. It charges through your usb port though, instead of plugging into your electrical outlet. That still means you can't recharge it if your power is off, but it is still neat. Amazingly I had it charged up before the power was gone and it turned out to be a very good source of bright light as you can see above and in photos below this one.
I decided I should have a little toddy too. It seemed so appropriate with the storm raging outside. I thought it might help me get sleepy, but in the end I think I only took three little sips of it. It is still in there sitting on my art table. 😄
I had my water there too and so I was ready to go. Behind it is a piece I am currently working on, so not finished yet. I'll show you later when it is done, unless it goes sideways and disappears... 😂
Since no good idea came to mind for an amazing "during storm" abstract, I just went with the season on a little canvas.
It made it a little more fun trying to do anything by candle and fan/light glow.
The bad thing.. .well... not bad... but challenging thing was that with the low level, one direction light, my hand kept getting between my brush and the light, so sometimes I would have to stop and reposition the painting or the light in order to see where my brush tip was hitting. This is where I stopped as by now I was getting sleepy and it was late enough I thought I could drift off to sleep if I went to bed.
The house was really dark after I turned off the fan light and snuggled into bed. I normally have a nightlight in my bathroom that puts a very low light glow on the floor of my hall, keeping me from having to turn on lights when I get up in the night. I also have an alarm clock beside my bed that normally shines the time on the ceiling which also causes a soft glow in part of the room. Without those it was pitch black ! No outside lights shining in the window.... no moon. Of course after I closed my eyes, it was all the same as usual....LOL !
Yesterday morning, I slept in a long time. I woke up several times, thought about how many times when I had to work and the alarm had gone off, I wished I could snuggle in just a little bit longer. Now here I was, with the opportunity to do just that, so I smiled to myself and DID snuggle back in. I think I caught up on all the sleep I ever lost....LOL
Later I went out to see what, if any, damage had been done with all those sounds of stuff banging and scraping and whirling around. Amazingly, only the roll-up shade in my first photo had been partially ripped off it's hooks and torn apart and my little pink piggy solar light my younger sister gave me about 3 years ago had fallen and some of it's pink body panel had been broken. It is plastic and probably a bit dry rotted by now since it sat outside steadily since I got it. I would say for the fierceness of the wind, I pretty much came out with less than minimal damage. I really expected much more damage, but was pleasantly surprised there was practically nothing at all !
While I was out there, I saw this beautiful fall leaf plastered to the deck. I don't have any trees that have leaves like this in my yard, but I'm thinking it may have flown over from the pasture across the street. I guess the way the wind was swirling and swirling, there is no true telling of where it began. I liked it's fall message though, delivered to my porch.
It is still cloudy today and dampish and may rain again this afternoon.
My sister Vicky that lives close to me and I were the only ones in our family that lost power, so I thought that was amazingly good. It also meant if the outage had turned out to be longer and we needed somewhere to go, we had options. Options are always good... right ? Yesterday while my power was still out, I decided to go visit my Mom instead of waiting till today. Since she had power, I could visit where it was warm, charge my phone and my fan light. We had a nice visit and by the time I got back home, my power was back on... YAY !
This is a damp photo from my back porch with my dogwood tree that is beginning to change into it's fall clothes in the background.
There's my weekend story.... or so far I should say as it is just mid morning and there is the entire day for more adventures to happen.
I don't have great plans for my day. After my post I will sit here and pay my monthly bills online, which will take nearly no time at all and then maybe I will do a little straightening around the house and maybe some more painting. We'll see !
Hope you are all doing well and are safe and happy.
Love you !
Jacey
Funny I also wrote about losing power, but ours is planned outages due to gross mismanagement by our power supplier. Good on you to do something constructive and get some decent sleep!
These storms are hectic, take care Jacey!
That just gets to me every time I see and hear it, how people in power abuse what should be a privilege to serve others and do good things for the masses, but how they selfishly use the power for their own selfish means intstead. Nobody would mind if they got a few perks while serving others, but it is just so sad to see and unfortunately is happening in various degrees in so many places.
I thought I should make it an adventure since I could do nothing about it and it would be good or bad depending on my own attitude about it. Even if we are naturally grateful, it doesn't hurt to experience a little hint of inconvenience to keep us mindful of how lucky we are most of the time.
After seeing the devastation in Florida, what we had felt like nothing.
Thanks for stopping over. I appreciate it.
That's what I try to do now when the power goes out during the day, just do something that doesn't require power and if it's at night...well, we can chat a little more than usual, have an early night but unfortunately it's hitting our economy in a big way.
Enjoy your Sunday further xxx
Thank you ! ❤️
Glad it was all just minimal damage, and that you were able to keep occupied during the outage. We don't get super long outages where I live, so we just have a tendency to drive around and see where the power is.
I don't think I have ever been out of power a whole day before. A few hours here or there and at least one time about 12 hours, but really haven't experienced too much of it in my lifetime. Just a couple miles down the road, our little city never lost power, so it was spotty. I couldn't believe there was no more damage around here than I saw on the way out to Mom's yesterday, but I also think they have done some extra pruning away from the wires since our last storm came through. You never know though, when the winds are that strong.
I felt fortunate that it wasn't out longer than that considering how many in our state were without power at one time.
Thanks for stopping over !
I never thought about a light being so useful on a fan, but sure enough it was genius! Glad it seems to have went exceedingly well over all!
Yeah.... it was a very good light. I don't know how long I had it on here and there, but when I recharged it at Mom's, it still was half full of energy. Guess the light is LED and doesn't take a lot of power.... I know the box said if it was LED, but that is long gone. ha ha
Yeah.... as long as no pain is involved, you can pretty much get through a day of anything.
Ah, you are a doer!!! Even with the power out, you managed to paint a wonderful Halloween-theme painting.
It so nice to live close by your sister and mom. I on the other hand live so far (100 miles or more) from my sorority sisters.
The message of the leaf is: “Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.” – Jim Bishop
Have a fun week ahead, @jacey.boldart !
!LADY 😍🌺🤙
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Well.. you know, the things you can do without power at night... and with limited light is well.... limited...LOL I just needed something to do instead of going to bed too early. I was not really wanting to give over my Friday night to sleep. Before I did the Jacks, I was really hoping the situation would inspire me to create something grand.... but alas, nothing was there.
Autumn carries the gold for sure.
If a fun week happens, I will be happy about that ! I hope yours is a good one too.
I'm happy you were okay. At first I wondered who Ian was. Lol! I loved how you spent the time. Lovely art there.
God answered your prayer. Soon after you finished working, the lights went out.
That lamp was quite effective. It made it look like you actually had power. 😃
The light definitely surprised me about how much it lit up a room. I had not had occasion to use it since my sister gave it to me.
That was uncanny how within about 10 minutes of my quitting time the power was gone. It made me laugh !
I had bought a little bottled water the day before on a whim. I had not gone to the store for that, but when I saw it on the shelf I grabbed two gallons. I didn't need to use it but I was a little prepared. I mean, if the house had blown away, I wouldn't have needed any of it ! LOL
Well you were more prepared than you even knew.
Can’t go wrong with water.😃
Now you had an actual reason to use the light. Had Ian really seen you, he would have said, “Jacey, you prepared for me well”. 😆
I’m happy he just passed through and didn’t overstay his time.
I didn't lose power! Can you believe that? My son did in Wake Forest, but, only for 15 hours. Long enough and lots of flooding and trees down. It blew long and hard here, rained cats and dogs, and went the way of the north.
I love the little pumpkins, no power and you still are out there creating and doing your thing...you are such an overachiever! :) No, seriously you are pretty darn awesome. I have had a lot of hurricanes while living in Florida for a couple of years. The wind howling through the windows scared the bejesus out of me. Seemed like the whole house shook. Only then was I sorry I didn't evacuate.
Anyway, you did great and did little damage. What a relief! I like the part about options! :)
Have a great week ahead!
I thought about you, but wasn't sure if the storm would be coming that near you or not.
I'm on top of the hill, but we really didn't have that much over flooding in the area. Either way, I'm usually good on that since I moved here.
I was hoping for some great inspiration for some great art that I could say I painted during the storm with the power out..... but.... no such luck, so I just played with something fun. I guess I will need to finish it now. LOL
The wind was howling here too sometimes. Such an odd and haunting sound.
Yes!! That is the one I don't like. It is fine if your house isn't shaking too. :) This one doesn't shake but the shore house windows rattle a bit. Shake is the wrong word, but, yikes!
I don't like it.
True story! When Henry was brand new, I was out at the Shore with my youngest daughter. He was used to living out in the weather on the island, but, we were having a hurricane out there and he wanted to be with us. We went out to a small shed and made him come in with us and we slept outside in the hurricane with the shed doors closed and the baby sleeping next to us. He had pneumonia already and we were afraid he would die out there.
The things we do for our kids. Two-legged and four-legged.
Glad you are fine!