Nooooo, Not My Power!

It's been a crazy weather season here in Seattle. So far we had snow before Thanksgiving in Seattle - snow that shut down roads and trapped drivers for hours trying to get home from their commutes. Then we had flooding rains - it's called a Pineapple Express - it's a weather system that streams in straight from Hawaii, bringing warmer air and LOTS of moisture. And manages to make all the rivers overflow their banks. And then came the crazy windstorm Friday night. Trees went down, power lines went down. Crazy.

It blew and blew and blew. We rarely lose power in our neighborhood, and when we do, it's not for any length of time. Our lines are buried, so when we lose it, it's usually a transformer blowing.

Friday night, I had just fallen asleep.  BAM!

I open my eyes. BAM! FLASH! (that would be the transformers blowing)

...and the power goes. Oh well, my bed is warm and it will probably be back on in a few hours. I snuggled under the covers, adding my extra down throw, listening to the wind howl outside. And I drifted off to sleep again...

BEEP! What the heck? BEEP!  Are you kidding me? The smoke alarm battery is dying? NOW?

I tell Hubs to bring me a chair, crawl out of bed, climb up and pull the smoke alarm from its wiring. BEEP! Yeah, yeah. I fiddle with it in my hand trying to open the battery compartment. BEEP! Finally getting it open I yank out the battery and toss it to the desk. I'll deal with battery replacement tomorrow.

(Note: Hubs can't do this part because he had shoulder surgery and can't yet reach up above his head with both arms. Any other time, and I can promise you I would have still been warm in my bed while he was handling this little inconvenience! I love that man!)

BEEP! What the heck? Somehow the thing stores power. I guess I'll replace the battery NOW! It beeped THREE more times with NO battery in it. It beeped its final, dying BEEP just as I got the new battery shoved into place. Timing is everything.

Seriously, what can you do but laugh? We laughed.

Humor really can carry you through the most annoying situations.

For the record, still no power the next morning. Thank goodness for the gas water heater, stove and fireplace. Later that day we went to Lowes to walk around and look at ideas for a bathroom update (and be warm). Now I have a new project for Christmas break! Woohoo! *eyeroll*

***Ally