Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Day 2 without power...the last thirty minutes in a twenty hour adventure

It is five o'clock in the morning of Day 2 without power, (I wrote by flashlight). I promised my son I'd wake him up in thirty minutes because he has a PT test this morning and he set his cell phone alarm 30 minutes early so he could read his Bible. But, by candle light, it is too dark to read.

By candlelight we played Scrabble last night. Bob calls Scrabble foreplay. He beat me by ten points. I had a word EXCITING but no where to play it, so I played the "X" on a triple joining an "O" and an "E" already on the board for 54 points. Then I had the word, SINNING, but Bob went out before I could play. After the game is over, we find places to fit the leftover tiles. Just for fun. Just for some completeness. It doesn't gain me any points or change who won nor the score. But, I found a space for SINNING. The sound of chain saws all night. Seems like crews would be more effective during the day, but a truck was dispatched what with all the calls. The whole neighborhood was dark as the tree trimmers cleared all the lines.

The frig is leaking. Twenty hours without being opened, but without power, and the ice is melting.

And then, at 5:30am: THE POWER IS BACK ON !! yeah ! LIGHTS ! CAMERA ! ACTION !

Now the coffeemaker will work. Bob blew out the candle he was shaving by and I hard boiled a dozen eggs.

It was clear earlier as I checked on trucks down the street. I saw stars. But, it started getting foggy. I like fog. Fog is cool. Quiet. Fog eats noise.

Laundry humming, second load of dishes also loaded. Sixty degrees outside. Feels great.

My son reminded me he is twenty-one years old. Again. He is tired of being mothered. He saw my page of cursive and asked, what is that? When I was in seventh grade our teacher encouraged us to practice our handwriting. Didn't his teachers?

1 comment:

Bob said...

Sleeping in a cool house with my lovely wife versus working all night dangling from a rope wielding a chainsaw. I definitely got the better end of the deal during this power outage.