Radar images via the web are one of the greatest things since sliced bread. At work we can keep an eye on storms as they develop and then move towards the village. As 4pm approached I took a peek and saw that a very small, but red, storm was heading straight towards us. I headed home from work to beat the storm. I made it about halfway back before rain started pouring down on my biking body.

I got home and watched the storm as it increased. Rain pounded at the windows on side of the house. Lightning was flickering all about. The rain suddenly switched and was hammering the other side of the house. At this point the lights were doing quite a bit of flickering. I was sending email in my wireless world. I hit send, and suddenly a bolt of lightning strikes the telephone pole next to my house. The internet died. I figured things were down in the city, so I relaxed for a bit and then headed out for a run when the rain ended.

Things were wet, and it was a warm and humid evening. The run started as usual. A half a mile later things got odd. I ran past the Omni (the “high class” hotel here in town), and suddenly there was no power anywhere. All traffic lights were out. No buildings had power. Nothing was on. Rush hour was still going on.

The run continued. As I was heading down main street there were more and more branches scattered across the sidewalks and roads. I ran past another hotel, and it had no power at all. People were milling about. There were more people on the sidewalks than I had ever noticed in the past. The entire village seemed to be out and about. As I got closer to UVA the size of the downed branches continued to grow. Traffic wasn’t moving since there were no lights. Cops were all about. I noticed that people were getting out of their cars to pull trees and metal newspaper carts out of the road. The cop that had been driving next to me for the past two miles fell behind after a few more lights.

I got to UVA and saw NBC29 broadcasting live from the heart of TJ’s U. Large chunks of trees were everywhere. No power on the campus, other than the buildings that had large generators (such as the hospital). I was waiting for the looting to begin. Not a single store on the corner was open due to lack of power. The sun was becoming a large orange sphere as the sky cleared out and humidity kicked in.

There was no evidence of power anywhere. Banks were darkened. McDonald’s wasn’t serving. Oil changes weren’t happening. The first sign of power I saw was at the major intersection of Ivy and Emmit. The traffic light was running. I kept running. I made it to the UVA practice track and ran a 100m run (for an upcoming bet…another story). At this point I was getting very warm. I was dripping. Very humid.

Five miles in to my run. Barrack’s Road Mall. Where all the rich people shop. Everything was dark. Parking lots were empty. Employees were all out smoking in front of the stores. Empty. Devoid of shopping. I kept running and was getting close to my half mile long uphill stretch.

I made it up the hill. No houses had power. People were pushing their babies around in carriages. Others were running around trying to clear branches off their cars. No one had any power. One more long hill and I was almost home. I got back to the historic downtown mall where power was just fine. I finally made it home. Dripping with sweat. Excited by the blacked out city. I had power. I had air conditioning. Fun.

I showered and then started chatting with tech support to look in to my internet (or lack thereof) issue. At one point I switched to the connection to my modern computer. I could see the web, but the connection was brutal. It seemed as if the ethernet port of the server had been fried. After a bit more investigation I figured out the DSL modem was partial toast. I switched back to my six year old DSL modem, from a time before DSL was around. It is a true antique/beta device. However, it has never failed, and is now powering outskirts. A new one is on the way.

I survived the storm.

The remains of Cindy rolled in last night. We only ended up with about 2.5 inches of rain, but it did help the drought, and perked up the mosquito population. It is now Friday evening. Crickets. Relatively cool. Perfect sunset. I’m sitting here at La Taza typing away after a few happy hour martinis. Relaxing. The week was only four days long, but seemed closer to nine. It is time to kick back and sleep.