A sudden thunderstorm swept through while we were eating dinner early yesterday evening, knocking out our power. As the storm ended, we were given the gift of the sight at right, which at the time more than made up for what we assumed would be a temporary discomfort. After all, we’ve had fairly minor power outages before, and expected that this would be no different.

That’s the view from the end of our drive down the street toward the east. The rainbow was so huge across the sky that I was unable to capture all of it, but this should give you some idea of what it’s like to live where I do … though I assure you that it doesn’t look like that every day.

As the outage continued through the night and into the morning, it became a little less fun, and the rainbow no longer seemed to make up for how grungy I felt. When I ran out in the morning to buy ice with which to fill the refrigerator and freezer—since this morning’s prediction was that the area might be without power for 48 hours or more—I learned that when the storm went through nearby Gerrardstown, it supposedly took down 13 consecutive telephone poles, which also carry the electricity.

After covering all of our perishables with ice, Irene and I vanished to, first, a cyber cafe, and then, a wired supermarket, to try to get some work done. It wasn’t so much that I needed constant online access, as my Blackberry can handle that, but I wanted to keep my laptop powered up, since until our electricity was restored, that was the only was I could watch the stack of pilots I needed to see to prepare for SCI FI magazine’s Fall Preview issue.

We stayed out on the road until I got a call from a neighbor a little while ago telling me that power was back, about 18 hours earlier than expected. So we’re now home again after an outage of about 27 hours. Not much in the scheme of things, and certainly not when I think of what others are going through elsewhere in the country, but still, it sure did make me grateful for that hot shower I just took.