A powerful storm front raged through the State of Georgia last night.  Tornadoes touched down in northwest Georgia and parts of metro Atlanta, and the ones in the northwest part of the state killed five people, some in a  trailer park and one in his home when a tree fell on his house.

I didn't get much sleep Saturday night anticipating the storm.  I was absolutely convinced I was going to lose power - it seems I always do in a big storm.  The only question would be for how long.  It's bad enough to lose electricity in the home but it's particularly challenging during a shelter-in-place quarantine.  It's not like you can go to Starbucks to kill a couple of hours, or hang in the local sports bar until the power comes back on.

My gas stove uses an electric spark lighter, but that wouldn't be a problem - I can get it started with a match or a lighter.  My electric oven, though, would be useless without power.  So I got up Sunday and immediately started baking all the food that would need baking - basically a couple of casseroles.  I could eat them cold, no problem, but couldn't very well cook them in a black out.  I figured I had about six to eight ready-to-eat meals in the event of an extended power outage.

The first wave of the storm came through around 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon, but it wasn't much of a threat - the big event was to come overnight on Sunday and into early Monday morning.  But I didn't lose power during the afternoon front, so that was a good start.

The evening news was covering the effects of the storm in Mississippi and adjacent Alabama.  Six already dead in Mississippi, tornadoes touching down in Alabama.  The radar was even picking up debris clouds from tornadoes 5,000 feet about the ground in the northern part of Georgia. Not comforting news as you're getting ready to call it a night.

I finally went to bed to the ominous sound of distant thunder Sunday night, and I couldn't sleep.  I know it's not completely rational and a remnant of back when I had some large trees behind the house (since taken down), but when a big storm comes through, I feel safer sleeping on the sofa in the den than in my bedroom.  I imagine that if a tree were to hit my house, statistically it's more likely to strike somewhere near the center of the house (i.e, the bedroom) than an end (the den).  The thunder was getting louder and the rainfall more intense, so I grabbed a blanket and moved to the den.

Thinking that I might have to abandon the house quickly if a tree were to come down, I slept in my clothes, even still wearing shoes.  I didn't want to be running out of the house in the middle of a storm barefoot, without my wallet or cell phone.  I had everything right there where I needed it, just in case of the worst.

I still couldn't sleep though, if for no other reason than the storm was just so damn loud.  Plenty of thunder, plenty of hard rain, plenty of pine cones and branches bouncing off the roof.

By the way, this was the first big test of my new roof, and it held up just fine.  Most people take their roof for granted and don't worry about whether they'll stay dry under it, but leaks prior to roof replacement had me worried.   No leaking last night, though.

By around 3:00 a.m., I heard the rain taper out.  The sound of thunder was once again distant, and it sounded like the front had passed.  I checked the weather app on my phone and saw on the radar map that the storm had indeed passed.  The hourly forecast listed the precipitation probability as "0%" for the rest of the night and on into Monday.

I had made it through the storm without a tree falling and without even losing power.  Relieved, I went back to the bedroom, got undressed, and finally went to bed.

I woke up again at 4:00 a.m. to the sound of wind and rain.  At first, I tried to convince myself it was just the sound of the furnace (the forecast said the storm was over) but there was no mistaking it - the storm was back.  I checked my phone again and the radar map now showed that a new cell had formed and it was right over me.  The new hourly forecast for 4 a.m. now said "100%" chance of rain.

It was back, so I returned to the sofa once again, but I couldn't get myself to put my shoes back on. By the time I settled in, though, the second - and mercifully last - cell had passed, and I was back in my bed by 6 a.m.

In all, I'd be surprised if I got two hours of sleep last night or more than about four hours on Saturday night.  It felt like it all day today, too.  But I had power, I had internet, no trees had come crashing down through my roof, and no water was flooding my kitchen floor.  I'll take tired over any of those any day of the week.  

Bonus points:  for six hour there, I wasn't thinking about the coronavirus.