Free Day!!!

The day before yesterday we had an experience that started out a little like Mahina's "Lighbulbs" post... sorry I dont know how to link to someone else's post yet so I'm just gonna copy and paste it here:

lightbulbs
yesterday was a yucky, stormy, rainy, and windy day! actually, i should say the last two days were! i can't remember it ever raining for this long without stopping since we moved here 7 years ago!

while i was fixing breakfast for the girls yesterday morning, there was a slight power "wobble" where the power was trying to decide if it wanted to fight the storm or just give in. you know what it's like; the lights dim, then they flicker, then they dim again, then the power goes full force and the lights, thankfully, are shining brightly!

well, that is what happened while i was scrambling up some eggs. then suddenly, the girls ran into the kitchen with great urgency and purpose screaming, "mommie, mommie, we need to buy new lightbulbs because all of the lights are dying!"

i love when my day starts out with a giggle! i knew it was going to be a good day, despite the gloom and lack of sunshine!

Nani, lala.... I think we need to get all new lightbulbs too! So now that you've read that story... i can tell you mine! Stuart was working on a presentation with his friend Tommy on the computer, we had a friend staying with us from Albuquerque who was working away on his computer while I was in the kitchen doing dishes and making lemonade. Every few minutes the lights would flicker but would come back to full force. as the night wore on this continued, since all computer work was being done on laptops, the work wasn't effected. I would notice when the power would go off when the hum of the fans would stall for just a moment then continue on or when my phone that was plugged in would chirp like it does when it gets plugged in or unplugged from its charger...

This is nothing out of the ordinary when the winds are like they were that night sometimes the power will go out for a minute and then come right back on. At about 3:22 am I was awaked by water spraying on my face.... were we camping? did it start to rain on us while we were camping under the stars? no no... I'm still in bed but i'm still getting rained on....



As you can see from this picture... the bed is about 4 1/2 feet away from the window. That night the wind was howling and the rain was pouring down. It was Kona winds so the wind was coming straight into this window. Stuart got up, closed the windows completely and with the gusts of wind the rain was still coming in! Poor Charlie out in the living room was sleeping by another window which happend to be missing a couple of louvers and was getting soaked!

This picture i know its hard to see... but for those of you who dont know... A LOT of windows here in hawaii are like this, and you can see theres a "louver" missing there in the middle.

So we made our rounds making sure all windows were closed and anything within reach of the curtains was not going to be knocked of the counter and broken.... then went back to bed... quite the adventurous night.

We woke up in the morning to find that the power had not come back on... (not a big surprise) and that this power outtage was island wide. The last time we had experienced this was sometime during last semester when there was a small earthquake early early on a sunday morning, and power didnt come back on until late sunday night. In this case, it was not a sunday, school was cancelled and we had a free day!!! And what do you do when there's no power, no school and you can't work on homework because we are so dependent on electricity? You grab some friends, load up the back of tank with your boards and head out to surf!



Upon coming home from our day of surfing, we had heard rumors of not getting power back until friday.... that would make things pretty interesting considering this is the last week of classes before finals... some classes even had a final scheduled for yesterday.... who knows what happens with that.

One of many great things about living in hawaii is that in December, you can still BBQ outside! Thats what happens when there's no electricy! And living here in TVA (housing apartments for married students at BYU-Hawaii) when the power goes out and theres rumors that you wont get it back for 2-3 days you gotta use up all your food before it goes bad. Tables were set up outside where people brought their food, and a BBQ was going. A spur of the moment potluck and it was awesome!

As im sure you have all noticed.... the power is no longer out (seeing that I am blogging) while we were sitting around eating singing playing guitar and ukulele we saw some christmas lights go on! And the power was back! well it was fun while it lasted! Now its back to school and work.... and hopefully blogging.... sorry about the delay!