Unpleaseant Return from Boston (Updated)

We are back from our week in Boston. Other than being weary to the bone from walking at least 3-ish miles every day, I think everyone had a good time. Saw some great stuff, ate some great food, and had plenty of fun. We even got to be in town for the NHL Championship parade, albeit watching on televisions at the airport while waiting to return home. We really pushed ourselves physically, though, and we were all grateful to be going home. We got our bags, hopped in the car (first time driving in a week!), and picked up dinner on the way home. We even pulled into the carport just before the thunderstorm hit. Perfect! We were greeted by four cats who were simultaneously angry with our absence and thrilled with our return. We chowed down on dinner, turned the child loose on the Wii, and started gathering clothes baskets to sort clothes for Sunday's planned washing marathon.

Forty-five minutes after walking in the door to our home after being gone for a week, the power went out. Normally, it is out for a few seconds. If it is going to be out more than that, it is usually 1-2 hours. By 8PM, the house was over 80 degrees inside, and we were all crashing. We *had* to get some sleep. With just enough clean clothes left from our trip (everyone's "just in case" outfit) to make it one more day, we headed for a hotel. We toured the neighborhood before we left and found the source of the trouble: a tree down across the power lines at the entrance to the neighborhood. The fire department was on the scene and the area was taped off. It had only taken down 1 or 2 of the 6-ish lines on the pole, so looks like less than 50 houses were affected, not even the whole neighborhood. We knew we would not be at the top of the priority list, but we fully expected the power to be back on by Sunday morning.

As of this writing, 10:30 AM on Sunday, we still have no power at the house. The fire department has cleared the tree and debris off the road, but there is still a branch laying on the lines. (I'm still so tired, I didn't even take a picture, if that tells you anything.) Georgia Power still has no estimate for when power should be restored at our residence. So after a great week with lots of fun, but also with lots of walking, we come home wanting only to sleep in our own beds and snuggle with our kitties. Instead, we could either smother in the heat or sleep in yet another hotel. We chose cool air and strange beds. (I did, however, get to sleep on my own pillow!) We very intentionally scheduled our return flight home on Saturday so that we would have all of Sunday to relax and wash clothes and just sit and be for a day, and let the child (who has been deprived of video games and television for a week) play on the Wii to his heart's content. Instead, we get to wander the city trying to find inside (air conditioned! high today is 95F/35C) stuff to do until the power is back on, maybe even spending another night in a hotel if it isn't back on by this evening. And, having been laid off Thursday before leaving on this trip, the budget was really not set up to handle 1-2 nights in a hotel plus replacing the entire contents of our refrigerator and freezer. I'm starting to wonder if we should just go back to Boston! Some "welcome home" this turned out to be.

(Just FYI, between 3 people carrying 5 cameras, we took over 3800 photos. It's going to take a while to sort and prep and blog!)

UPDATED: We got power back around 1PM on Sunday. Lost everything in the refrigerator, but freezer stuff still frozen solid. Whew!

Currently feeling: *not* a happy camper