The Night that Was

This was not going to be a bloggy day. I didn't have a topic or anecdote in mind, and I was okay with that. Although I post frequently, I have never committed to being a daily poster. However, as I was doing my daily puzzles and whatnot on my tablet, I thought that I simply must post about last night.

Whenever I got to sleep, possibly 11:30-ish, I awoke at 1 o'clock to go. . .  well . . . you know where.

As I returned to my chair in my still sleepy state, even I couldn't help but notice the lightning. I was seeing flash after flash to the point where it never went dark between flashes. There was nothing to do about it, so I rolled over.

There was a loud noise: a noise I interpreted at the time to be a sudden power outage that caused my surge protector to stop and restart immediately.

I was wrong about the noise, which turned out to have been an Emergency Alert on our phones. At this point I am a little foggy about the following sequence of events, but I shall do my best.

I felt a beep from my watch, which I do usually wear to bed because of my Sleepwatch app. But who can read a text message on a tiny watchface through bleary, sleep-shot eyes? I could see that it was an Alert of some kind, but once again, I decided to try to go back to sleep. As you know, sleep is an issue in my life, so I like to hold on to it when I can.

Sue burst into the den with tablet and phone in hand and going on about a tornado warning and heading to the basement. That's about all that I heard because I was sans hearing aids, and she was more or less talking in her normal but rapid voice, or at least not amplifying enough.

I think I growled something about not going to the basement and, once again, I made an effort to get back to sleep. My mind, however, was finally beginning to kick into gear. Beginning.

I realized that I should read the Alert, so I grabbed my phone and, through squinting eyes, read that there was indeed a tornado warning with the advice to head to the basement.

Meanwhile, the lightning was ongoing. It was quite something.

Whether I heeded the warning immediately or whether it took another minute or two, I can't be sure, but I soon concluded that I should, perhaps, be taking this seriously.

It was a hot night, so I was just in my loin cloth, as it were, and under a thin sheet to at least give me some cover from the overhead fan. But it was a little cooler by then, so I dressed myself in a tee and pyjama-type pants.

Sue came back into my room, once again with tablet and phone in hand.

We gazed out the back window. We gazed out the front window. The lightning was becoming less frequent. The peak of danger seemed to be past.

I went to bed, our shared bed this time, and managed to go to sleep until sometime after 5, close to 6, I think. I then brewed a coffee, played some games, and read some blogs. I brewed another cup of coffee.

Eventually, Sue staggered into my den, and I do mean staggered. The lady was not in a good state of being. She'd had a terrible night with the thunder and howling wind keeping her up. If that wasn't enough, she then developed  one of those recurring pains in her wrist, the kind of pains that pretty well make sleep impossible.

One of the very meagre advantages of being very hard of hearing is that the thunder and winds had been much softer on my brain, and so I had slept at least for some hours.

This morning, FB posts reveal that we were, indeed, in the absolute heart of the tornado warning. There may have been a touchdown or near touchdown on a local street with trees being downed, cars being damaged, and power being lost. But I think that is all although I am sure that it was enough for those who were affected.

And that, dear blog and bloggers, was the night that was.