On Friday, June 29th, a weather phenomenon called a Derecho, slammed into Washington, DC and left more than a million people without electricity. I was lucky enough to have been away for a few days and only had to suffer through the power outage from Sunday evening to Tuesday evening. But, boy, did those few days test my mettle! It left me cranky and sweaty but with some incredibly powerful lessons…
- Eat the ice cream. Right away. Don’t save it for an emergency. When there is ice cream in the fridge, every single day is an emergency.
- Hanging out in the outdoor patio furniture section of Target is totally acceptable.
- Trees are lovely things… Lovely, deadly things that like to take down power lines. You will never look at a tree the same way again.
- You will re-evaluate your friendships based on their location on the power grid.
- Complaining won’t get you anywhere, but it’s going to feel damn good.
- When you don’t have power, you will actually look forward to going into the office. It’s possible.
- You will invent new ways to stay cool – like naked brushing your teeth or naked sweeping the floor.
I know I sound like a Baz Luhrmann song telling you to wear sunscreen but if you take anything away from this post it’s that you should never let ice cream go to waste.
What did YOU learn from the power outage?
P.S. A HUGE thanks to the men and women who worked tirelessly in the blazing heat to get power back on as soon as possible.
Photo via Flickr (Creative Commons) by Brittany Herbert.
Yogitastic 
Very funny post!
Thank you! It’s funny because it’s true. 🙂
I always agree with eating ice cream first, power outage or not. 🙂 glad your survived!
If it wasn’t so hot I think it would have been just fine… I didn’t even turn the TV or computer on until 3 days later. We still haven’t restocked our fridge. I’m bracing myself for more bad weather-related events to come. Has it been raining in your neck of the woods?
Raining yes, but not too bad. More of a light to medium rain most of the time, but it brings the temperatures down which is always nice!
Contrarian argument for saving ice cream for last: fridges should be kept as shut as possible during a power outage to minimize spoilage of the more expensive foods. The ice cream would have kept the exotic stuff cold.
I have a solution for that… Throw a party, invite everyone over and eat everything right away!! 🙂 Share the ice cream, too!
Funny! I’m glad you were able to find a little humor in a crappy situation.
I learned to be thankful for where I live as I somehow don’t get affected by weather disasters, and thankful for nearby friends and family if I ever do get affected. I also learned that my dog thinks he can scare away thunder by barking at it. Constantly.
Well, the thunder did eventually go away so I think Nico is right. Bark away, cute doggy… Bark away!
BUT WHAT KIND OF ICE CREAM?!?!?!
Whoa, sir, this blog is all-accepting. It’s a judgment-free zone. We accept all ice cream here.