Wednesday night I lit candles, and snuggled up in the recliner to read (ie pretend to read while I fall asleep) and wait for the men-folk to come home. Cocooned in our peaceful home I had no clue what was going on outside. The boys came rushing in about an hour later, telling me there is a lightning storm going on outside. I thought they were pulling my leg as I hadn’t been aware of anything!! I peered outside and saw the rain coming down in torrents, flashes of lightning were illuminating the sky and the heavy rumble of thunder was heard overhead.
We were eating out at friends that night (in fact we ate out for every yom tov meal in the last 3 days) and even though it wasn’t far to go we would have got drenched. The rain eased up a bit, and we walked as fast as we could to our friends’ house. Every time the lightning flashed or the thunder roared I jumped and / or screamed, much to the boys’ amusement! I hate thunder. It scares me!! (Yes, I know, I am such a girl)
We arrived at our destination, not too soaked, thankfully. We wanted to at least be able to make kiddush in the sukkah but the rain was pouring at that point – however, we all went into the sukkah, our host made kiddush, and we continued the delicious meal inside.
Soon after we sat down to eat (in the dining room) there was a power failure. The power was off for about 15 minutes. I wondered if the ovens left on by many religious folk for the 3 day marathon of holiday and Shabbat would restart themselves, or stay off. Seems that most of them switched back on once the power was restored. Of course, every single electrical clock in our house was flashing a different time for 3 days, but that was the worst we had to deal with.
It was just so surprising to me that Sukkot started with such a bang. We had been expecting awesome hot weather, and here we were dealing with a storm!
The rest of the Sukkot weather (up until now) was glorious and perfect!! We had six amazing meals out – my friends are awesome people. Seriously – knowing that we had been in Canada for the immigration interview, then packing up the truck and moving our stuff down and unpacking – cooking for yom tov would have been an extra huge stressor on me. So our awesome amazing friends invited us so I wouldn’t have that extra headache. Our new community totally rocks – all of you people are so giving and generous and welcoming. So, thank you to the K’s, the J’s, the K2’s, the F’s, the Y’s and the T’s. I look forward to welcoming you all to our home for a Shabbat / yomtov meal – just not all at the same time 😉 !!
In the Pink 