Tonight I’ll be watching the Olympics. And remembering…

13 August 2004. Friday the 13th [not that I hold to any such superstitions]. I was watching the opening ceremony for the Athens Olympics on TV. A storm raged outside. Really. [It was a dark and stormy night....] Hurricane Charlie.

As I recall, it was about quarter after nine pm when my electricity went out. I got it back… a week later.

I was luckier than many — I lost a couple branches from the trees in my yard, but not my roof or any other essential parts [except that electricity part, of course]. As a result, I didn’t get to watch nearly as much of the Olympics as I had planned.

That was a really bad storm season. We had been hit by a tropical storm just one day before Charlie. A couple weeks later we were hit by Hurricane Frances [three days w/o electricity for me that time]. Another couple weeks and we suffered Hurricane Jeanne [only 15 minutes w/o electricity -- woo-hoo!]. those are just the high low points!

Tonight I hope all the excitement is on the tube. I’ll be watching….

P.S. What a spectacular opening ceremony! Do you have a favorite part?