Water is a good sign

That's what my wonderful advisor said when I told him that the forecast for the day of the defense called for stormy weather. And while the storms didn't come that day, they did hit yesterday.

In the afternoon, after I'd returned from the university to bask in the realization that I was DONE, all hell broke loose, and I'm hoping it was all a good sign. With winds that seemed to be close to hurricane level, with more than 330 strikes of lighting in less than an hour, the Storm of the Century came our way and it sounded like the sky was going to fall on us.

Thankfully, apart from the rattling of windows every time the thunder thundered and the anxiety of seeing it hail for a few minutes (I have it ingrained in my mind that the synonym for hail is tornado) nothing much happened until there was a sudden sound very much like the Titanic when it sank in the movie. It was like the whale-like whine that an immovable object makes when meeting an irresistible force. And the lights went out.

That was about 7 p.m. and the storm raged on for another hour or so. By the time it was done, my husband walked out and returned to report that the storm had pulled a large tree by its roots in front of a nearby house, and the tree had fallen across the road and on top of someone's parked car. In falling, the tree took down several power lines, and that must've been the sound we heard. Police cars arrived with their red and blue lights blinking, and we were sure that the electric company would follow shortly. But 10:30 p.m. came and there was no sign that we'd have electricity so we went to bed.

Gone were my hopes of spending my first night of DONE parked in front of the TV watching the finale of "Top Chef" and any and every rerun I could find that was mindless.

We awoke around 7 a.m. still without electricity and the electric company trucks didn't arrive until about 10 a.m., by which time we knew that everything in the freezer that was perishable had to be cooked and that most things in the refrigerator were now the same temperature as the inside of the house. When it was all said and done, the electricity came back around noon, just in time for me to rush out to go get my haircut (in honor of my doctorate and of summer, I've had my long hair chopped off short).

When I returned after running a few errands, the electricity was still on but the cable wasn't working. So my hopes of spending the first day after being DONE watching the finale of "Top Chef" and any rerun of anything that looked remotely brainless were also dashed.

Tomorrow, the dogs and I go back to the little apartment in the woods at my small college on the hill for a three-week intensive summer program that I'm co-teaching with a colleague. We meet the students on Sunday so we're getting together tomorrow to finalize the syllabus, etc. The TV at the little apartment in the woods only has basic cable (which means no Bravo) so my hope of catching the "Top Chef" ending will remain only a hope for the foreseeable future.

While I'm looking forward to teaching again, I would've preferred a more mellow two days before going up there. But hopefully the weekend in the woods will be much quieter and more peaceful than these past two days have been here in my little city.