Day 199:
The freakish storms of June 2012 were something to behold, Son... Sudden, powerful, frightening, and unrelenting. The Northern Virginia area today was paralyzed in the aftermath of downed power lines, trees lying across roads, stop lights not working, and emergency crews spread so thin they were almost left unable to respond to incoming emergencies... And all this as the temperature was once again rising into triple digits. Yes Boy'O, two million NoVA residents were without power and no relief in site given the sudden impact of the storms...
In last night's post I'd mentioned the exploding table on the back deck as well as the tree falling across our car... Well, it seems we got off easy. Many, many more folks were far worse off, Conor... And after I'd had the opportunity to clean up the debris around our house first thing this morning with a power saw, a dustpan, some garbage cans, and a shop vac, it was off to see what we could salvage of Ziggy's Benefit.
Power was out at the Moose Lodge where we'd be hosting the event, and so when I arrived with all the raffle gifts and auction items at 11:00am, a sense of panic washed over me for the fact that the Lodge had no power which also meant no air-conditioning, no coolers working, no food, no band, no nothing... Leaving the rest of my crew to set out in search of ice, I scoured Northern Virginia, Son. Nothing... NOt only did I not find ice, I nary found and ICE CUBE! Big trouble now... Zig's benefit was on the verge of collapse and my blood pressure rose and rose as I made my way back ti the Lodge around 12:30pm...
Then, something awesome happened... I'd called Dominion Power when I was on my way and spoke with somebody on their help line... Being inundated with calls even 3 minutes of their time would be at a premium! The woman I spoke with was sympathetic to my cause, or maybe even somebody she rides with was also biker... Never the less, she told me she would "see what she could do" in terms of getting a crew to the specific area of Vienna I was talking about... Several hours later we had power! If it was truly her to help in getting the power on at the lodge, then I'd like to send my gratitude for her efforts... Because with the power back on, Boy'O, it was "game on"...
The rest of the event, despite it being a bit of a smaller turnout than I'd anticipated, turned out to be great, Son. At one point we had roughly 200 bikes in the parking lot... Folks were buying up all the 50/50 tickets, Lottery Raffles, and Silent Auction. The food was good. The Alpha Dog Blues Band was good. And the friends and family were fantastic...
You and Mommy showed up for about 90 minutes, but to be sure you didn't want to sit in that smelly old smokey lodge, and so it was decided you would stay outside. Though of course, that was so hot you were only good for so long! Still, you met about 100 Boozefighters today, Son. And they were all quite grateful to finally meet the Lion Heart.
All in all the event was a HUGE success! We raised money for Ziggy and, despite missing him, had a fair bit of fun... Damn the heat and the downed trees. We rally'd together for a cause - a great cause, and we ALL got it done, Son.... So proud of my friends, Conor.
As a result of the downed lines and power outages, the day finished with Uncle's Scotty and Bear, as well as Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Paul, Nathan, and Andrew all spending the night at our place. So of course, what do we do? Make a party of it! Though now everyone's in bed and here I sit... And I gotta tell you, as tired as I am, I'd be dammed if I was going to miss an entry in this blog after almost 200 days!
I love you, Conor.
-Dad
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