From Ringing Ears to Shedding Tears

Well that was an eventful 24 hours I'd just as soon not repeat. Here's the situation....

A few days before a vacation, a storm decides to roll in. One of those big ones. One of those that will repeat itself tonight if the weather gods hate me. And what does foul weather spell for our house? Here's the checklist:

- Drooling, shaking dog that is so scared he throws up.
- Loss of satellite signal followed by loss of power.

Now that doesn't sound so bad by itself. But there were a few extra factors last night. Like, because I neglected to pull up the rugs in the bathroom, Henry throws up. Time to wash the rugs and clean the floors. And Elizabeth steps in the dog vomit. Time to clean her shoes and reprimand her for screaming bloody murder because she stepped in it because we thought she fell in the tub which was half full of water in the event of a black out. Might as well clean the bathroom while I'm at it. Might as well empty the tub since it looks like it won't rain anymore. Oh wait, there's more thunder coming. William goes to bed and was so scared he threw up. So we had to change him and the sheets. Yvonne snuggles with him in our bed while I watch a movie (Western Union) on the DVR (remember, no satellite signal).

And the storms roll on and on and on. The power goes out so we go to bed. This time though, I'm sleeping on the living room floor. Just not enough room for three people in our bed. Sometime during the night Elizabeth wakes up and joins them. Guess there is room for three people. So I sleep in her bed. And Henry needs to go out to pee. Fastest I've seen that dog pee in a long time while the thunder rolls across the sky. Finally, around four in the morning, the power comes back on. But we've all had very little sleep.

So that was the rough part of last night. The odd part was my dream. My old college roommate (not old like he's an old guy, old like it was a long time ago) gave me a present of an old camera. He works with old film so on his recent visit he brought his old camera. As in you have to wind it to get 16 seconds of silent film. Anyway, he gave me a camera like that (although it looked an awful lot like the surveyor's scope from Western Union) and I was so happy, I cried. And I woke up crying. Yeah. That's never happened before. Me crying doesn't even happen often. And to cry over a gift? Um, yeah. I can only explain it by blaming the lack of sleep and flashing lights in the sky. Maybe aliens abducted me or something, I don't know.

So, how was your night?