Not good.  Not good at all … but thanks to amazing timing and wonderful neighbors, all’s well tonight on our little corner of the earth.

Friday morning I headed off to work, concerned about the high wind predictions, but not really knowing what to do about it.  I checked my phone mid-morning and saw a couple messages.  One neighbor and long time friend calmly said that all was well – the dogs were safe, but there was a power line down and a fire at my house that was out now.  I flew the 15 minutes home – heart pounding.

One neighbor’s dog, Fluffy, an adorable Bichon, started to bark, alerting his owner, who happened to be home from school for the day due to parent-teacher conferences.  He leaped in to action, along with my other neighbor, who by then had gathered a 3rd neighbor and called 911 … and by the time I got the memo, my house was safe and a quarter of our small town was lacking electricity because it was all sparking around my back yard.

I have never seen power like that unleashed.  It remains terrifying to think of all the people/pets that could have been hurt/killed if one thing had gone wrong.  One touch to the fence, one gust of wind moving something unexpectedly … I am beyond grateful that we all walked away with only a story to tell.

The Dominion Energy Virginia  crew was great.  They started the repair Friday and worked till dark.  The next morning they returned and had us all back up and running by 11 AM.  There are a lot of people still out of power two and a half days after the worst of the wind … so thank you.  And thank you dear neighbors, and Fluffy, and the Universe for letting this all work out safely.