2006 Blew

inute ago the power came back on. For all the good it would have done myself and my family, since it doubtless took all night to thaw out the igloo that once was our house. That's why we'd be at the hotel we're staying at tonight even if we were aware that the power was just restored. As it is, given that I didn't sleep a wink last night and I was concerned about my family falling prey to hypothermia (it was literally below freezing inside our place last night), I just could not face another long, cold, dark night. I wanted us to be warm again, even if it meant we'd become (after a fashion) refugees, no matter how temporary.

You'll note that I haven't said a word about being without the bells and whistles that electricity makes possible. No computer, no TV; that was my son's predictable lament. He was heartbroken that he couldn't go over to his friend's house and play Mario Party v. 5.0, even though they locked him in a closet on Friday. For my part, if this outage had happened any warm time of year, I could have endured it as long as necessary. All we'd have been out is a fridge full of leftovers and the cost of eating out more often. As for entertainment, well, there's a reason why a lot of babies tend to be born nine months after a blackout. And in-between there are always books to read, an admonition for which my son has yet to develop my daughter's appreciation. Especially the part about them not requiring batteries.

If you'll excuse me, my children are finally asleep, so I have to go warm up now in the most delightful sense. God willing, there will never be that sort of "power outage" in our igloo.