For some reasons, people are especially irritable on Fridays.  Janene & I knew it was going to be one of those Fridays from the get-go this morning.  Whether they were patients on the phone or coming in for appointments, they were huffy and grouchy.  We looked at each other, raised our eyebrows, and said, “Ooohhh boy…today is going to be fun.”

And indeed, we were in for more than we had planned.

Since we only had one doctor in the clinic today, we were spurting between busy phones and then periods of silence.  This is how it sometimes is.   Janene went to lunch at noon and I manned the front desk, which was incredibly quiet over the noon hour.  About 15 minutes later, Janene came up and said, “You have to look outside!!”  There was a dark blue, almost black bunch of clouds headed our way.  About that time the wind picked up and the trees were almost bent over.  I went back to the front desk just as the lights flickered, rebooting most of the computers.  My computer was still up though so I didn’t think anything of it, thinking it was just the storm.  But, just in case, I pulled up the schedule on my computer to print it off.  The phone rang, pausing my printing efforts, and it was Hy-Vee pharmacy.  She had barely said the patient’s name that she was calling for when the office went pitch black and I couldn’t hear her anymore.  The emergency lights came on and the beeping of the computers, phones, lights, and technology-in-general started.  (We’re talking about annoying beeping that continued for the duration of the afternoon!)  

Even at this point, I didn’t panic (a proud moment in my day given my incredible fright over the dark).  I figured that, just an exaggeration of before, this was just a quick flicker and the lights would come back on in a minute.  When they didn’t, I knew it was a bigger deal than I had thought.  

It turned out that thousands of homes and businesses in the area were out of electricity and it was due, in our area of town, to a blown transformer.  There would be no way the electric company was going to put on the top of their list and get our power back up before the end of the day.  

Janene and I got our cell phones and started flipping through charts for the afternoon calling patients.  Skin checks were told to not come in (how were we going to check moles with flashlights?) and other issues (rashes, prescriptions refills, etc.) were told to come in as soon as possible.  (Surprisingly, once the storm passed, it was really bright outside so the exam rooms with large windows could be used for the patients.)  After we had called everyone, we ate cake.

(No, seriously, we really did eat cake!  There was a birthday today so someone had brought in a delicious carrot cake, which we devoured.)  By 3 PM, all 5 of the afternoon patients who were going to come in had left.  We transferred any refrigerated medicines to the spa across the street (which is on a different electric line apparently because every business over there was fine…) and locked up.  

Premonitions were slightly off this morning, but we were exactly correct that it was going to quite a day!  At least it was Friday and we got a slightly early start to our weekend.

Now it looks (and sounds) like the storms are coming back through.  Here’s what I just saw outside 5 minutes ago.  And now, it’s a drenching downpour and I’m safe inside.  

Addendum:  Rain wasn’t all we got.  My car sat outside while hail pelted down on it.  I haven’t yet stepped foot outside to see what, if any, the damage it.  I’m not that worried; my car is a trooper and usually fixes itself.  True story.