So, Friday night (June 30) southern New Jersey was struck by a surprise storm with all the strength of a hurricane. No one expected it..it wasn’t even on the weather reports or radar. Thunder, lightening and winds around 80mph tore though our area, completely uprooting massive trees. Electricity was out over most of country and few surrounding areas. We had no electricity for about 24 hours, from 1 am Sat, to 1am Sun. The loss of power was particularly rough because the heat was up around 90...it was HOT.

The worst part however was the panic it seemed to cause. We had out of towners coming in to get to the shore for vacations unaware of the problems plus locals trying to get out to beat the heat. The roads were jammed and slow because the power was out on all the street lights. Most gas stations didn’t have power and the ones that were, were backed up to waiting 30-45 minutes just to get gas. To make those matters worse, people were being jackasses…there was no order to how people came and went in the stations so what could have been a n orderly flow of cars to the pumps was not..it was fueled with anger and frustration.

So, after a completely frustrating morning just trying to fuel our car because it was close to empty so that we could go somewhere, we finally headed into Atlantic City around 6pm which had power. The boardwalk was actually fun and cool. So in the end we left the kids with a nice day. But then we got back home around 8 and the house was sooooo hot. The poor kids couldn’t get to sleep because they were sweating. They finally fell asleep around 10. I was starting to lose it, I’ll tell you. I’ll be the first to admit my addiction to online and I hated not having it. It was dark and hot and uncomfortable. We sat outside for a while, because it was actually nicer outside, but I always get bitten up by mosquitoes, so..Audrey was not happy.

Around 11 went to sleep. At 1:30 the power came back, which freaked my dog out lol. She started barking like crazy which woke us up and altered us. We celebrated! Then went back to sleep. Sunday morning, it was cool at least and we had tv, but no internet or phone service yet. *Sigh* We had to get some food because everything in our fridge/freezer that thawed and was no good. The supermarkets were still madhouses as plenty of people were still without power. Shelves at the smaller grocers were nearly bare. The one closest to us had no dairy at all because the previous day they didn’t have power so everything had spoiled and they couldn’t sell it.

Three days later we had a phone again, but still no internet... we tried to keep busy by going out, to the beach and whatnot. THEN, my husband had to go back to work which meant he took the car and me and the kids were home alone. I couldn't get out anywhere and the net was still down. Comcast called on Thursday evening saying it was back up, but ours wasn't. So we called and something was wrong with our connection. *SIGH* So they scheduled an appointment for SUNDAY!! Friday night I was literally in tears. I'm quite aware that that is a little pathetic but my life is on here..my friends, my work, people I knew would be getting agitated at not hearing from me which stressed me out.

Comcast was supposed to come today between 1-3...they got here at 4:30! So I literally just got it back. I will be spending the night answering notes and email and playing catch up. I don't think I've spent a week without the internet since I got grounded for spending too much on AOL hours!! Man... Anyway...I'm okay and I'm back.