Tormenta II The Sequel

Alrighty then.

That was interesting. If by interesting I mean something akin to watching mice nibble off your toes. "Surely this can't continue" was the comment most expressed after day two, but by day four the sarcastic, "Oh look, it's raining" leaped to the fore. Following those snappy epithets, RTGFKAR and I were oft heard loudly clicking our fingers and saying "Lights on now!" to a not laughable no avail. Electricity, we determined then, was a very useful thing to have. (Whatever it is.) Compounding the problem,(I almost said "issue) were the two words that appeared as if by magic on our cell phones that read: no service; a condition that meant we would not be able to report our lack of lights, computers, television and good humor. We could, if we dared to brave the high winds, sideways falling rain and rapidly deteriorating servidumbre, climb into our car and motor to Union Fenosa to make our report. We, however, dared not, as the memory of the last time we had chosen that option was still in mind. On that occasion, the honcho in charge at U. F. had scribbled a phone number on the back of our bill for us to call. No, we would just have to ride out the storm visualizing someone out there on the job splicing wires, raising downed power poles, throwing switches and sacrificing those less and less handy virgins to the electricity gods in hopes of bringing light back into our lives. It took five days.

I could say we made the best of it, but I'm not sure what best implies. Using the time to invent, create or compose something to cheer all mankind, perhaps. We didn't do that. We read and played scrabble by day and slept fitfully by night; night being defined as dark, mas o menos six o,clock. We also contributed to the world's economic stimulus effort by thrilling the manufacturer and employees of a paper towel company by using roll after roll of their product to clean up the messes left by three puppies reluctant as we to brave the wind and rain. The environment, I lament, no doubt suffers from the loss of the rain forest needed for the production of the absorbent towels.

Yesterday brought storm's end. Still powerless and phone-less, RTGFKAR and I, saying "Let's do it" while stopped and evaluating our chances of driving on the servidumbre over a culvert where the sides of the road had collapsed into the water leaving a barely wide enough path to traverse - we hoped - set forth on a mission to tell someone about our lack of life's finer things, like, oh, contact with the outer world comes to mind. We made it safely across the culvert, renewed breathing and then achieved all of our goals. We purchased a generator in David, I got my license renewed - a thing that had taken weeks of trying - reported and later had our power restored, picked up our bar stools that had been ordered months before, eaten pizza and brought home KFC for Woowoo Charly.

Life is good again. Good being partially, but not insignificantly, defined as puppies peeing outside.