The Fourth of July weekend from hell

July 9, 2026

Well, that was one hell of a Fourth of July weekend.

Friday evening, July 3rd, a thunderstorm blew through and knocked out our power and internet. A tree came down with it and took out the power line and internet line to the house, and blocked the driveway.

The morning of the 4th was spent cutting up the downed tree to clear the driveway, plus a large branch that was hung up in the overhead power line.

Thankfully we have a Generac whole-home backup, so we had power to everything but the stove and stayed cool through the heat wave. That didn't fix the internet, though, so we missed all the 250th celebrations.

Power was back on in the neighborhood by Sunday evening, but we had to wait on the power company to fix our downed line; that finally happened Tuesday evening. Verizon came out today to get the internet back up. So we're all good now.

In the middle of all that, Lisa took me to the ER Monday morning because I was feeling like shit. Turns out I'm having cardiac PVCs — Premature Ventricular Contractions, a type of heart arrhythmia. They kept me overnight and ran tests Tuesday. My cardiologist prescribed something to reduce the PVCs and sent me home Tuesday afternoon. I've got a follow-up appointment tomorrow to figure out next steps.

It sucks when the old ticker decides to act up.