I’ve had that phrase from James Taylor’s song Walking Man in my head all day. Because one thing or another from morn til night hasn’t been right.
I’ve been staying in a ‘thesdan hotel for a couple of days – electrical trouble in Garrett Park – and as I chatted on the phone this afternoon with Mr UD (the Civic Studies Institute at Tufts just ended; he’ll be back from Boston soon) I looked idly out of my fourth floor window at the Rockville Pike.
“That has got to be the ugliest black cloud I’ve ever seen,” I said to him as I caught sight of a fast-moving mass off to the left. Behind it churned thick gray clouds. “Wow.”
The moment we finished talking, the cloud swooped onto the Pike – it looked as though someone had suddenly released canisters of tear gas – and a frightening wind and rain storm came up.
The speed of the thing! In an instant it was something out of Hurricane Andrew — vast horizontal rains, trees bending all the way down, stunned traffic edging away from the street, lightning streaks, a long horrible howling sound…
Clang. The electricity in my room shut down.
Should I go to the lobby? What if the door’s key card is electrical? I wouldn’t be able to get back in. On the other hand, I felt vulnerable in my room.
I called the front desk. “Stay in your room,” the woman said.
The storm quickly passed; the sun came out. I sat by the window and read Hitch-22. But the electricity stayed off, and the heat of the room became uncomfortable.
The front desk had no idea when PEPCO would get to the hotel, but they knew that an immense area was without power.
I packed, got a cab, and took another hotel room – a place in downtown ‘thesda which does, for some reason, continue to have electricity.
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All of this is by way of explaining why you’ve not heard much from me today.
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Update: La Kid and her friend Maura will join me in my hotel room. Maura’s family’s house is without power.
July 25th, 2010 at 8:02PM
You have spent more time in hotels because of power outages since you’ve been blogging than I have in my whole life. Perhaps you should run for office in ‘Thesda on the No More Power Interruptions! ticket?
July 25th, 2010 at 8:57PM
Well, Michael, as the girls and I have fun with room service and movies, I have to admit a certain dark romance with the emergency hotel situation…
July 25th, 2010 at 9:15PM
What a great post! Very accurate description of todays storm! Now we get to celebrate in the AC and have a slumber party!