Stormy Weather

Seems like everybody is mad at Washington, D. C. these days. Even Mother Nature got her licks in last night with a line of enormous thunderstorms that brought gale-force winds, horizontal rain, and hail. One person near here in the Virginia suburbs was killed as he sat in his car and a tree fell on it. Whenever a storm like this comes through, I wonder if our old maple tree in the back is going to survive once again or fall, either tearing up the deck or obliterating the roof. So far, so good, but a limb from our next door neighbor's tree did fall into our yard, in a safe place, thank goodness.

My walk this morning was an obstacle course in places where downed trees or major trunks thereof were blocking the way. I heard generators in various spots along my route, supplying electrical power where the grid had failed. Schools are closed because they are without power. (Even in good weather, we've been having more flickering and brown-outs here recently than at any time in my memory, as demand for power reaches the limit of the local company to provide it.) Comcast, our connection with the world, has been hit recently with breaks in its own cables as well as general power outages. Losing all Comcast service had been unheard of for years until very recently, and such a loss is worse than a mere nuisance. When Comcast and its TV, internet and phone services go, a lifeline goes with them, and a cell phone becomes a necessity rather than a mere convenience.

For now everything is normal in our little pocket of the metropolis, after a Comcast outage last night. This morning I turned on the air conditioning for the first time this year, anticipating high humidity with temperatures in the 90s while we are away. I must cut the grass today if it ever dries out; otherwise we will be faced with a hay field when we return on Monday.

À demain, chers liseurs.