Blackout

(a tea party is a perfect way to spend a blackout afternoon)

Our street is always the first to lose power. Old big trees, above ground power lines, and just that special bit of (bad?) luck means that our street-- even when every neighboring street still has power-- has a blackout during every blizzard, rain storm, and yes, hurricane. We lost our power when the winds kicked up Saturday night, and got it back sometime in the middle of the night last night.

(thankfully, knitting needles are not powered by electricity)

I will admit, a blackout has its drawbacks: will the backup sump pump do its job, or will our basement flood? (it didn't flood) Will the food in our fridge go bad? (no, thankfully, by some miracle even the milk was nice and cool) And, this is the clencher, where will we get our coffee? (a trip over to my parents house, who had power, fixed that problem... next time I think I will start a cold brew going overnight the day before the hurricane)

(I have decided that our clean milk jars must go somewhere, look just lovely, and might as well go on the mantel)

But a single blackout day also has its beauty. There is no email, no noisy housecleaning, no elaborate cooking (all of which I had just plenty of preparing for a lovely big family gathering on Friday at our place, thankyouverymuch). Dinner can be leftover barbecue on hamburger buns and watermelon, all cold and delicious. Cleaning can consist of rinsing off a couple of plates and picking up a few toys off the floor. And when the hurricane clear, and the air is dry and the wind is breezy, open windows will bring just the right amount of freshness into a otherwise still house.


Oh, and the evening: this is just magic. When the only glow in your house is a single flame, when all the kids are asleep and the crickets are chirping and even the outside is black because the other houses, they don't have electricity either, this is perfect.

When I went in to feed Hugo this morning, the power was back on, and I did give a little sigh of relief. Afterall, there is laundry to be done and food to be cooked and other such important matters to be conducted. But, while I'll probably be singing a different tune in the dead of winter when we are snowed in without heat and nowhere to go, a blackout can be just the best, don't you think?