Powerless

It was a gloomy, stormy Saturday morning. Pelting rain, savage lightning and ferocious winds pounded our area. The skies were so dark that we had to turn on the lights inside. Weather reports said it would be bad the entire weekend. So my husband and I decided we'd hunker down at home for the day. We figured there were lots of things we could do indoors to pass the time: microwave some popcorn and watch a good movie on TV or DVD, enjoy a nice, long phone chat with some old friends, finish some laundry, spend some quality time on the treadmill, listen to music, catch up on emails, do some mindless Googling, read a good book, maybe even bake up a batch of cookies and top it all off with a tasty, home-cooked spaghetti dinner. We had the whole day planned out. If we had to be cooped up inside, there were plenty of ways we could amuse ourselves.

Then it happened. A deafening crash of lightning. The lights flickered and died. The TV screen dissolved to black. The electric clocks stopped. The power surge on the computer started crazily beeping and suddenly we were immersed in nearly total darkness. The power was out. Totally and unequivocally out. Zapped. Dead. And it was only 9:30 in the morning.

First thing we did was try to call the local power company on our cordless phone. Oops. Phone was dead. Next we used the cell phone and were informed that lightning had hit a huge generator station and it might be 2 days before power was reinstalled. Two days! Suddenly we started to panic. What on earth would we do with ourselves for 2 solid days? Our cozy, stormy weather plans were no longer viable. No microwave popcorn. No TV movies. Couldn't do laundry unless I wanted to wash clothes outside by hand in the pouring rain. No internet surfing. No oven baked cookies and forget that delicious spaghetti dinner. The only good thing was we had a great excuse for not using the treadmill. Without electric lamps, it was even too dark inside to read.

OK, now some of you may be slyly smirking and wondering why we didn't think of doing something romantic: a long, leisurely, amorous interlude. Get real, bub. Next brilliant idea? Cards? Monopoly? Trivial Pursuit? Nah. Too dark to read the cards. Finally, we had a brainstorm. Conversation? As in talking to each other? By golly, we're both two mature, somewhat reasonable adults. We are literate and moderately articulate. We've been married for over 30 years and we still like each other. Surely we met the criteria for being capable of sharing a cordial, spontaneous conversation with one other. And so it was that we snuggled up in two comfy chairs across from each other in the living room. My husband started a fire in the hearth. I placed a few lit candles around the room. Amidst the soft glow of candlelight and the soothing warmth from the fire, we gently smiled at each other and began to talk.......Unexpectedly, the power roared back on. Everything was back to normal. Dodged a bullet that day. Sphere: Related Content