Midnight musings on our third day without power
That’s all it took to erase 30 years experience as a professional writer and turn me into a rambling idiot
Elvis pays Memphis a visit
Almost exactly 20 years ago (July 22, 2003), I stood in our sunroom, holding my 6-month-old son, and watching as winds that seemingly came out of nowhere bent our weeping willow to the ground. That storm, technically a derecho, came to be called Hurricane Elvis, and that’s the name anyone who was in the Memphis metro area that day remembers it by. Elvis tore through the city with straight-line winds of up to 100mph. Limbs fell, tree trunks snapped, and some trees were ripped up by the roots. Power lines were down everywhere, and some people were without power for weeks.
The return of Elvis?
Monday, July 17, 2023
Something similar happened Monday evening. My kids (now teens) stood at the windows with my husband and me and watched as trash dumpsters flew down the street, branches snapped, and our neighbors’ tree split in two.
When the power went out, we weren’t surprised.
Luckily, we have a mini generator that powered a refrigerator, some fans, a couple of lamps, and a power cube that kept everyone’s phone charged.
I can deal with winter power outages. Summer power outages challenge my sanity. Not only do I hate being hot, I hate the uncertainty of not knowing how long the power will be out, especially when there’s such widespread damage. We have crews from as far away as New Orleans helping put the grid back together and others helping to remove fallen trees from the train tracks that are close to our neighborhood.
Our power came back on this morning, and the house is cooling off. So I thought it would be fun to take a look at how my writing and mental state devolved as the days wore on.
Night 1
At this point, I was still relatively sane. I was even having fun posting on social media sites I haven’t bothered with lately. Enforced down time sparked my creative energy…for a while.
It was more like panting than breathing, but I digress. I even had enough neurons still firing to wonder why she only wants to sleep on top of me when the power is out.
By Night 2, things were different. The cool air that moved in after the storm ran away, chased by typical southern heat and humidity. There would be little cooling off that night.
Night 2, 2:30 a.m.
Someone told me this ramble reminded them of Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire.
Day 3: Morning
It’s amazing how spending a few days without power can mess with your mind! But the voice shouting “Power!” was real; my son heard it, too,