Barbaric Yet Refreshing

This morning a storm came through Houston right around 7am-ish. I had on the tele watching my favorite channel (The Weather Channel) - there, I said it, my favorite t.v. channel is The Weather Channel and I'm not ashamed!! They have Local On The 8's, and Storm Stories... Anywho the little red ticker on the bottom of the screen said "widespread power outages possible in Houston". I got out my super cool voodoo candle courtesy of Crazy Aunt Purl and the moment I lit the candle (after placing it in the middle of the stove where it is safe, and fire resistant) lightening struck right outside the window and the house went dark.

Losing one's power is kinda fun. It can be romantic, adventurous, a change of pace, etc. I like these type of unscheduled events in my life because I can pretend that I'm Indiana Jones (whoops, did I say that out loud?). Here are several reasons losing one's power is NOT fun:

1. Although your entire street is out of power it is only YOUR side of the street. So looking out the windows you can see people getting ready to face the day using lights. And air conditioning. And their socks match.
2. The humidity in your little microworld is 103% and it's only going higher.
3. The power stays off for four hours because apparently out of 70,000 customers without power, your little halfside of the street isn't a high priority in getting it turned back on.
4. The forecast high (last you knew before they took away your weather channel with one little bolt of lightening) is in the 90's.
5. You have to crochet 19 items by lunchtime and they are all made out of wool.

Fortunately the power did come back on at about 10 to noon which gave me plenty of time to eat something and comb my hair and answer the phone. The phone? Is he just babbling again. Um, hello, didn't I tell you I was being interviewed for a podcast today? And because I'm naturally shy and do not like to talk about myself (it could happen) the interview only lasted two hours. The reporter promised she would edit out all the naughty boring bits. I'll let you know when it is published.

Losing the power for a few hours was indeed barbaric. I couldn't check my email, or open the fridge, or check my socks to see if they matched (at least until the sun came up). But it was also refreshing. I opened some windows when the rain stopped and sat in the family room to work. The house was completely silent; no humming of the fridge, no iPod of the music, no t.v. of the daytime shows. Just quiet. I could actually hear the birds singing, and the squirrels as they scurried across the fence, etc. It was nice, refreshing even. Even without my Local on the 8's.