Friday Freestyles... The Storms Edition

I have not posted in a whole week.

That is soooooooo rare a thing for me?

And there MUST be a reason for it.

I have on internet. I have no internet. I HAVE NO INTERNET.

And no landline phone service.

None.

More on that later...

Anyway, it is a beautiful day in my beloved ATL. It's 70 degrees and the sun is shining high in the sky. And it's going to be a beautiful weekend.

I woke up this morning to meticulously cut grass, in the front yard and back. O_o.  Now, a couple of days ago, when this boy asked me if I wanted my grass cut, I said no.  I guess he wanted to cut it anyway. I have to pay him, as I don't care to come home to my door being kicked in. But he's gonna get a good talking to.

I have been cutting my own grass as of late without much problem. Mr. Thomas usually does it, but he likes to "contract" the work out to other folk. Odd to see some strange dude cutting my grass. That's not right for only $15. And Mr. Thomas probably pays this person only $5. You KNOW that's wrong for all that work.  Sigh.

Back to my phone and internet service being shot.

It's hard to blog when I don't have all that. I have no way of uploading my pictures.

I still have no internet or landline service. But you know me an how, uh... bootleg, I can be. So I'm up and running right now. 

All I know, I was in the shower at 6:30 am on Tuesday morning, singing down, and all sudsy...

And the lights went out. It was pitch black. Just me and the running water...

And a lone meow from the Oldcat Oscar-Tyrone.

The stormy weather hampering the southeast was the problem. Here in the ATL, we had high winds and thunderstorms producing some 4 to 5 inches of rain. It was so bad that it woke me up that morning.

It was hard getting around and getting ready for work that morning just armed with a flashlight. Oscar had to be fed. I had to make my lunch. I finally just decided to wait until it got light outside before I left for work.

And since the garage is electric, that meant no Lucy, Jr. I needed to drive Pam.

And Pam was dirty, covered in pollen and leafy debris despite the torrential rains. So I had to get out there and clean Pam before I left for work.

(I know folks were like "What is this fool doing out here washing the car?")

And come to find out that the lights went out because a HUGE tree fell a few houses up from my house. It knocked down a bunch of power and phone lines.

By this time, the power company trucks had arrived. 

Everyone was outside, just a eyeballin' them.

I noticed they taped off the street when I was leaving that morning. When I drove onto my street after work, the power company workers were out there working hard on it.

I had to go around the block to get to my house. That is fine. As long as my lights were turned back on.

And they weren't, even though I received a message at work that they were back on. I got home around 3. Lights were back on at 4:30.

BUT I had no internet or phone service. And I HATE calling the phone company. It takes at least an hour for them to figure out what is wrong.

The next morning I drove down the street to have a look at the damage. (It wasn't on the news, so that meant that no houses wer hit).

Look at that. They cut it enough to clear the street, and that's it.

Look at how big it is!

Wow! I am thankful it didn't hit those people's house. That would've been disastrous.

Here is the debris on the other side of the street.

Apparently the tree fell out over the street and hit the wires, which broke it's fall.  I am glad no cars were hit. When this type of things happen in Atlanta, someone gets killed or hurt by falling trees. And this time, the news reported that hundreds of trees fell during this storm. Sigh.

I don't have phone service or internet service. I called the phone company, and apparently, the power company repairs their power lines, but leave the phone company lines on the ground (and there were lines all on the sidewalk. Seems odd that they would leave them down like that).

I took half a day off because someone had to be home to get service from the technician. This dude saw the wires down and walked off. I got a call later that night that the phone cable division had to deal with it, and something would be done within 24 hours.

So when I arrived home the next day, they were out there putting up phone wires.

That dude was looking at me. Yeah buddy, I am out here taking pictures. Whatcha gonna do about it?

*ladylee scurrying into house before dude comes down out that bucket and snaps*

STILL no phone service. 

Hmm...

So I called the phone company from my cell phone once again. The ticket was still open. So hopefully they figure something out.

I just got a call from the technician saying that everything was working. We will see when I get home.

This is such a minor inconvenience.It is quite the high class problem. There were over 150 tornadoes over the past couple of days in the south and midwest. Pensacola Florida got over 24 inches of rain. Other places were flooded out also. We've been under a flash flood warning. People have lost their houses and everything they have. Over 20 people have lost their very lives.

So this "no phone/no internet" is what it is: a minor annoyance. It is remarkable how much we are dependent on such things.

I am thankful to just be fine. No worse for the wear. It's been a pretty decent week, it has.

And I hope to have a good weekend.

On purpose.