That was the Night When the Lights Went Out...

Last weekend was harrowing, to say the least. With winds up to 62 mph and trees going down all around our neighborhood, it wasn't surprising that we would end up losing power Saturday night. In the past we've been lucky. At most we have had to deal with a power outage for less than 12 hours. During the snowstorm two weeks ago, we lost power for ten hours. This time, our power was out for almost two days. We also had trees blocking roads in virtually every direction from our house, so until the storm abated on Sunday evening, I wasn't even interested in trying to go out anywhere. People have actually started calling this an unnamed hurricane. This amuses our family. We started calling it The Hurricane that Must Not be Named.

And what do you do when you have no power for an extended period of time? If you're me, you finish as much of your comic strips as possible and start composing a blog entry in your head. We'll call it:

What We Did While The Lights Were Out:

~Start digging into the thawing food. These things always seem to happen after I make a big grocery trip. I had just told my husband to buy two gallons of milk while he was out Saturday afternoon because the kids had been draining a gallon a day lately. I also realized on Sunday evening that we had a container of barely touched ice cream that was now less than soft serve. That meant milkshakes all around. And what do you have with milkshakes?

~Bake cookies. Thankfully, we have a gas stove. It wasn't to cold outside, but it was cold enough to be uncomfortable. I'm not a fan of keeping on an empty oven to heat the house, but if we can have chocolate chip cookies and warm the house at the same time, I consider that as good a reason as any to start baking.

~Tell stories. My children have the uncanny ability of being able to act out their favorite YouTube videos, so Sunday evening we were treated with several of their favorite RandomGuy and How it Should Have Ended episodes.

~Retell stories. They also improvise stories. They've been working on their own version of Paradise Lost for a while and my husband and I were given a performance. Some of the highlights include God letting there be light by "clapping on"; the Holy Soap of Justice, which Michael the Archangel uses on Lucifer every time the fallen angel "bleeps"; and Lucifer tricking Eve into thinking that God was using reverse psychology when He told them not to eat the forbidden fruit.

~Sing songs. I am pleased(?) to say I still know all the lyrics to Gilligan's Island. I also remember all the lyrics to David Bowie's Major Tom and my family doesn't do badly with Bohemian Rhapsody. We also sang a few Beatles songs. This may explain why everyone had sore throats on Monday morning.

~Knit. OK, only Marina was able to do this. But at least she could do it. She is working on another sweater for herself.

~Read. Well, this is obvious. We did a lot of reading by flashlight. I had had the forethought to buy plenty of batteries for the lanterns and we also have two crank flashlights which have nice strong light and also give the user exercise when it's time to recharge. Chase was especially creative here. He used his tri-corner pirate captain's hat to fashion his own headlamp. I was lucky enough to get a picture. We have a powerful flash on the camera, it makes the room look well-lit, even though it was incredibly dark in the living room:



The stick is being used as a counterbalance for the flashlight. Anyway, I was just happy that he was enjoying a book I recommended to him, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate.

And that's how we spent our nights without electricity. I hope I've given you some ideas for the next time you find yourself in the dark!