Wow.

Remind me never to mention storm candles again!

On Sunday afternoon we had a small thunderstorm roll in. Nothing big, mind you -- just some gentle thunder rumbling in the background. My kids were in the living room watching the rain through an open window, while I was trying to get a few minutes rest after a long and tiring weekend.

That "gentle little storm" soon turned into (what I heard later was)50 mph winds that whipped through my neighborhood, knocking over trees and ripping transformers off the power lines. Thank God no one was hurt, but there was some property damage at a few homes and we were without power for quite awhile.

The power goes off quite often around here. For some reason, our street seems to get hit with some fluke thing -- a broken branch, a transformer exploding, whatever -- and we're in the dark again. I've got great neighbors and we usually turn it into a little impromptu street party, but it would be nice to not have this happen quite so often.


In other WOW news:

I just heard this massive "thump" a few minutes ago coming from the kitchen. Naturally, I was concerned and called out,

me: "Honey? Are you OK?"
dh: "Yeah... I'm fine.
me: "What happened in there?"
dh: "You don't want to know..."

OK, after that I was in the kitchen, to make sure my beloved was indeed "fine."

He was.

Turns out that a palmetto bug had been in the cabinet, and when he opened the door, it made a beeline for his face. He is normally not one to be freaked out by bugs, but when something that big flies right at you unexpectedly, you tend to jump back.

Forgive me for being so unloving at the moment, but all I can think is "thank You, God!" that it was him and not me. Had it been me opening that cabinet, you would have heard my screams wherever you are.

Seriously.

I am still freaked out over it, and I've got my legs tucked up on the chair, looking around carefully as I type this.

We've had this cockroach conversation before, but palmetto bugs are another form of torture entirely.

They are huge.
They are not afraid of light.
They are not afraid of you.
They fly.
They aim for your face.

I think I need to soak in a nice hot bath and forget that just happened.