What to do when the power goes out...

It's been a stormy week, and I came home last night to find the power out. My first thought when the kitchen light wouldn't flip on was that the bulbs were simply burned out. This was annoying. Both at once? Of course when I realized two seconds later what was really happening, I would have given anything for it to have been the bulbs. The first order of business was food. I had planned to make New Orleans style beans and rice and an apple dumpling for dessert. Considering I had been looking forward to it all day, any kind of plan B was a significant let down. But the issue soon changed from 'not being able to eat what I had originally planned' to 'not being able to eat anything.' There was nothing that wouldn't require heating or cooking in some way. I looked at the fruit bowl on my kitchen table and decided I would just make a smoothie. Which was a genius plan. Until I remembered that blenders need electricity. So I ended up mashing my ripe avacado with some tomato, onion, and garlic and eating it with chips. Not the best guac I've ever had, but in my defense, I didn't have very good visibility and consequently didn't realize how much onion and garlic I was cutting.

The second order of business was entertainment. I couldn't call anyone, as my phone was almost dead and I obviously wasn't able to charge it. Television wasn't an option either, but the good news was I had charged my computer the night before, so I would have hours to surf, blog, email, or watch the shows I missed last week. This was also a genius plan. Until I remembered internet doesn't work when there's no power for the modem, router, server, or whatever it is that actually needs power. And so I spent the evening playing guitar, which I can't really complain about because I love playing the guitar, and I have a new song I'm trying to get the hang of anyway.

The third order of business was light, for it was soon too dark to see a thing, even the guitar in my hands. Back when I moved in and was buying everything in sight for my house, my mom had added things like "flashlight" and "candles" to our list. I would have never thought to put these things on the list, and even if I had, I would have disregarded them. Power outages are so rare and so short that can't you just deal with them? Well as I headed upstairs for the night (keep in mind it's only 7:30 at this point, yet almost completely dark outside and in the house) I reached for the blue mag light on top of the fridge. Click. Nothing. Click click. Nothing. Considering that I'm not really comfortable with candles ever since the flaming dutch oven incident, the fact that now my flashlight didn't appear to be working was very bad news. But it was a brand new flashlight, and I wasn't going down without a fight. I twisted and unscrewed/rescrewed until I got it working, and all the thanks goes to my mom that I even owned the flashlight in the first place.

The fourth order of business was heat. Because it was freezing cold. I wouldn't have turned on the heat (it's September, for crying out loud) but I would have used my space heater for sure. As it was I bundled up in sweats and my oversize Cavs sweatshirt, two pairs of socks, and just got into bed. Of course the early bed time was also partly because there was simply nothing else to do, and no light to do it in. And so I read a book by flashlight until I was tired enough to fall asleep. Although falling asleep was rough too. I was cold. I was hungry. It was relatively early. My fan obviously wasn't working, so I had no white noise to drown out the complete silence. And the streetlamp at the bottom of my driveway wasn't working, which was surprisingly distracting. Awful sleeper as I am, I find I've actually gotten used to the light that shines in my room from the streetlamp. I know that the power came on again briefly at 9 PM, but that it didn't stay on for good until 3 AM. Here's hoping everything in the fridge didn't go bad! If so, bring on another night of guacamole.

Side note: If you're wondering why I didn't just leave and go somewhere, a restaurant, a party, anywhere that had power, don't think I didn't think about it. But I decided I really didn't want to come home to a completely dark house on a completely dark, streetlampless street.