The first year, my niece and her family were here along with my daughter and her family, not to mention my brother in law and sister in law. We like to get together when everyone is here, and that seems to be Christmas and Easter. Christmas is not the problem - ever.
The plan was for us to go over to the in laws for Saturday night dinner, and Easter Sunday would be here. The men folks here were working on the front deck Saturday until early afternoon. We decided to sit down to play a board game. As we were playing, the skies began to get dark. The weather said there were storms heading our way. They got darker and darker, and finally the lightning and thunder began.
About 2 pm, the electricity went out. Being all too citified at that point, and not thinking at all, when son in law decided he really needed a shower. We said to go ahead - no problem. We are on a well. There was enough water in the tank for a shower. Then we were out. We felt quite stupid.
About 5, we headed out to the in laws. It had been raining heavily, and the roads were very muddy (they are not paved - remember). But we were confident because we have 4-wheel drive in the troop carrier. As we were going up the in laws road, we met my niece and her husband who rolled down the window as he forced us off the road and yelled "no 4 wheel drive!" They were heading back to Austin. The in laws also had no water, and their son was little bitty and sick with an ear infection .
My brother in law was having to fix the evening meal on the gas grill because our kitchens are both electric. That was the only choice. The menu was a whole filet and potatoes. The deck he was using faces directly north. The wind was from the north. E had difficulty keeping the grill lit.
The resulting meal was interesting. Some of the potatoes were burned and some were raw. The filet was rather rare, but that is fine with me.
Shortly after dinner, we decided we really better head home. It was dark, and the lights were still out. Lady Bug had never been through a power outage. She was about three at the time. She could not understand why she couldn’t watch movies and we were sitting around in the dark with candles burning. Fortunately, S’s lap top had long lasting battery and we used that for her movies.
Needless to say we went to bed early, only to be awakened at 2am when the lights came back on.
Last year, we had bad weather again. We stood at the patio door on the front of the house to watch the weather happen outside. It was blowing again with a thunder storm. As we were watching, a tornado (small one, thank you God) passed to our left heading toward the other people on the next hill.
That brings us to this year. M and E were here again. We knew there was going to be cold weather and rain. That dashed all hopes for an outside egg hunt. Mid afternoon it was 31 degrees. It began to sleet, then snow. We had an inch accumulation on the back deck. But we went over for an Easter egg hunt and dinner - again.
Getting down out steps was a trick. They were so icy. The roads were muddy, and at one point there was a huge puddle. We made it. Things went better because the electricity stayed on. That was really great.
Next year, we are staying in Swampland!
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