Friday night (May 30) Indianapolis was hit by a tornado. Luckily our Angie’s List offices are still standing, but 430 people were left without homes in the city. I’ll consider myself lucky since less than 20 blocks away from my house the wind tore off roofs from homes and businesses.
I suggested to my fiancé we should take cover during the storm, but we sat on the couch as the lights flickered 15 to 20 times before they finally went out for good around 12:30 a.m. It’s Monday and the electricity still isn’t back on.
I didn’t realize how much I depend on electricity, but Saturday morning, I found myself thinking about doing the laundry, ironing, vacuuming the carpet and vacuuming out the car — only to realize that I couldn’t do a single chore. After a few minutes though, I was dusting the furniture and cleaning the kitchen floor. For fun, I decided to play with my dogs. With the high humidity, Bud and Moto played one game of catch and then fell asleep, leaving me with nothing to do. I’m sure I could have found something to organize, but at that moment, it was sort of nice sitting in silence twiddling my thumbs.
Sunday, my fiancé and I talked and talked some more, and then we didn’t have anything else to talk about. We picked up our cell phones and called anyone who had something different to say. I didn’t miss the TV noise and actually found it nice to be able to catch up with the person I share my life with and the friends I’ve lost touch with.
During a moment of silence, I sarcastically asked my fiancée if we could get rid of the flat-screen TV we just paid off, and he smiled and laughed at me. That will never happen, especially when the electricity does come back on and he realizes there’s a “Law and Order” marathon on. I like the peace and quiet and the casual conversation, and although I can live without the TV on, it would be nice to turn on a fan in this 86-degree weather.
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