Recently I was looking through my tag cloud and decided to clean it up. I have a tag for “Virginia Tech” and also “Hokies”. Probably don’t need both.

I also have a “natural disasters” tag. I used it when I did an  update on the first two weeks of David’s life. Remember those two weeks? When we had an EARTHQUAKE and then four days later we had a HURRICANE? People ask me if it’s hard using cloth diapers and the answer is, yes, cloth diapers are more work than disposable diapers. But, truthfully, we’re still dealing with the whiplash of losing power twice before our baby was two weeks old.

As soon as I decided to delete the natural disasters tag, a TORNADO ripped through Richmond. Apparently, that’s how Mother Nature works. She likes being represented in my tag cloud.

I use the cliche “ripped through Richmond,”, but the truth is I wasn’t even here. I was safe in Southwest Virginia where it was sunny and warm with low humidity and blue birds perched on my shoulder. Tom called me and the moment he said “tornado” I knew he’d been drinking and forgot we don’t live in the Midwest.

Turns out, a tornado touched down right outside of Richmond.

I drove back to Richmond on Tuesday and trees were down all over 64.

And our power was out.

When I was a kid our power went out a lot. We happened to live in The Last House to Have The Power Turned Back On.

Turns out, Tom and I now live in The Last Neighborhood to Have The Power Turned Back On.

This was our alley.

I grew up in the country with a well, so when our power went out we didn’t have water. That means we couldn’t shower, brush our teeth, and had to run past the bathroom because, wow. It gets smelly fast when you can’t flush the commode.

Here in Richmond we have running water (we even have hot water because we have a gas water heater) but we don’t have AC and we can’t cook. Oh, and a freezer full of food. Maybe these are first world problems, but I also had to watch this week’s episode of The Bachelorette THREE days late! COME ON! Why do the people across the street have power and WE DON’T?

The power company promised we’d have power by Wednesday morning, but Tom got out his camping stove for me just in case. Bless his heart.

Instead, we went to Tom’s parents house and soaked in their air conditioning and extra freezer space.

Once we were there and our food was safe in their freezers, I almost wanted our power to stay off longer. The longer our power was off, the more indignant I could be. Our neighbors called and told us power was restored sometime Wednesday evening.

Which, um, THREE DAYS! WITHOUT POWER! Unacceptable.

Tom told me we were only out for 48 hours.

Imagine my righteous tone when I corrected him, “No, Tom. Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. That’s three days.”

And then he was all, “We lost power Monday afternoon. We got it back Wednesday afternoon. That’s 48 hours at most.”

How annoying.

Maybe the saddest story of the whole thing, even sadder than us having to throw out a barely-eaten container of ice cream, is that a house near us was pummeled by an enormous willow oak. If that weren’t bad enough, they’d just finished renovating their home. Even worse? The guy had been asking the city to remove the tree, and they refused.

And one of the prettiest gardens I’ve ever seen got flattened at the house across the street. (This is Sally’s garden, mentioned in the video below.)

I thought I was indignant until I saw this. It’s palpable at 1:08. Then skip to 1:46. THAT’S MY POWER LINE! Makes me angry every time I think about it.

For now I’m leaving the natural disaster tag. The forecast is calling for record heat and I don’t want to trigger a wildfire. Or a volcano.

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