My Song at Night

Last night a really bad storm hit St. Louis and knocked down some trees and power lines. I was at work when the storm hit, and the place where I work has its own electric generator, so we were able to carry on in comfort. At the end of the shift, as I drove home through patches of darkness and light, I had to be careful to avoid debris in the street.

When I got home I found the power was out in my neighborhood. Worse than the lack of light, though, was the lack of air conditioning, because that day had been one of the hottest of the year so far. My apartment, even after I opened the windows, was still about 10 degrees warmer than it was outside. I tried to spend a couple of hours outside on the steps of my building--until about 1:30 a.m. Since it was night, the temperature wasn't too bad--not really cool, but not uncomfortably warm either. But, of course, the mosquitos and other bugs were out in force, so eventually I had to go back inside. I tried to sleep, but the heat made it very difficult. At last, at around 4 in the morning, when it seemed like I could hardly take it any more, the power was restored and I could hear every air conditioner in the complex turn on.

This morning, I can see all of the debris outside, twigs and small branches everywhere. A very large branch was snapped off of the tree behind my building.