The Night The Lights Went Out and Anniversary Texts

I hear a loud thwump, and the house immediately stops humming. No AC blowing, no refrigerator dropping ice, no whir of the dishwasher. Of course, we all called out anyway "what was that?" and "is the power out?" 

It is confirmed that the power is indeed out when J, who has been playing Xbox, gets kicked off and let's us know with his exclamations of frustration that he is probably going to lose his game privileges for 24 hours to a week for quitting mid-game. 

As the wind rattles against the window wall that faces the churning lake, each family member gradually migrates to the living room. 

Some of us still have gadgets with a little battery left, so hubby gets on the power company's website. Yes, we didn't just blow a circuit, there is a local power outage. 

J immediately pulls out his phone and connects to the portable bluetooth speaker. However, after we sing along with The Thunder Rolls and are halfway through the second song on the playlist, the speaker dies from not having been charged for a few days. 

His phone is almost out of juice anyway, and M's is already dead. Only hubby and I have a little left on ours. The winds continue to swirl around our house

Seeing the speaking floor is wide open, M takes this chance to resume a discussion he'd started earlier with J about how people have lost their spiritual connection to the natural world due to technology and electronics, and that it all began with the industrial revolution. 

I'm vaguely listening since my laptop is still charged and has an internet connection through my partially-charged phone's hotspot.

I hear the conversation flow into his retelling of a synopsis of the The Odyssey's end. He tells it quite theatrically, and I find myself stopping to listen to find out what happens to Odysseus and Penelope. 

Apparently, after Odysseus has gone to war and spent 20 years trying to return through trials and tribulations, after killing all her suitors that were in her house as he arrives home, after Penelope tests him regarding the construction of their marriage bed, when they finally "reunite", they experience the closest one can come to spiritual nirvana on earth. 

I guess you aren't going to get that by sitting on a couch being entertained by electronics. 

I close my laptop.

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Eight years ago yesterday, hubs had a heart related "power outage". It was an quick, yet intense storm. You can read the just-the-facts version here: The Rain Came Down. 

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We discover we are not prepared for a power outage. We have no candles or flashlights in the house. We also remember that most of Austin's equipment runs on electricity although some of it runs on charged batteries. So the charged feeding pump and suction machine could work for a while, and if we need it, the charged portable oxygen concentrator, but I have no blender to puree his food so that it can be pumped through a feeding tube. 

By the light of an iPad, I have to figure out a way to blend it by hand. Specifically the avocado needs to be smashed up and smooth. I try using a gravy ladel in a large ceramic bowl as a sort of mortice and pestle, but I finally settle on putting it in a Ziploc bag and massaging and smoothing it with my hands. 

Once the avocado is pretty smooth, I add the thicker ingredients one by one, massaging and smoothing as I go. Finally I add the dry ingredients, and then the liquid fats and water. All in all, after about 30-45 minutes of working at it, I end up with a pretty smooth formula that resembles what I get from a blender.

In the meantime, the boys go to the only open grocery store and buy their last six emergency candles as well as three flashlights.

When they return, they proceed to read the mail by candlelight which evolves into pretending they are Civil War soldiers writing in their diaries or letters to their loved ones. 

"Dear Diary, the power just went out and we are making do entertaining ourselves by candlelight," jokes one kid using a southern accent. 

"Dear Eliza, it has been 16 minutes since the power went out, and we have run out of entertainment options," jokes another.

"Dear Diary, it’s been 45 minutes since the power went off, and I’ve made seven entries into my diary," pens the first. And on and on.

It is all too funny, plus it helps that M is currently sporting a Civil War general's beard and mustache. I'm laughing so hard, I almost pee my pants and have to stand cross-legged while mooshing avocado and baby beef. 

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After we get Austin in bed around 11:00-11:30pm, no one seems ready to retire because we are all hyped up over our novel situation. We end up sitting around, what the boys call, our "feasting table" lit by candlelight. 

Somehow J ends up leading us in a rousing discussion of two of his favorite books, Beowulf and a follow up book written years later about the antagonist, Grendel. 

He tells the stories with as much animation and excitement as M told The Odyssey. They discuss and argue heroes and antiheroes, philosophy and religion. 

I have to say we really immersed ourselves into the idea of no technology and seeking the spiritual through the natural. It was also remarkably eye opening that we could actually entertain ourselves just by discussing things we've read and learned.

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I'm sticky from having worked in the yard all day so I'm lying in bed awake. I didn't get to take a shower before bed because, oh yeah, there is no water when there's no electricity. We are on a well and the water relies on a pump to get to all of our faucets. All night we had been using bottled water and not flushing toilets. Therefore no shower, either.

Finally, at 3 AM, the power comes back on. I know because I am obviously wide awake waiting for it. I take a shower.

The next morning the lake is calm as glass. However, I notice one of my chairs has blown towards the edge of the dock. After looking more closely, I sadly realize I am missing the footstool.

I traipse down to the dock edge with a golf club thinking I'll just fish the stool off the bottom of the lake. 

Unfortunately it's not there and after more investigation and experimenting, I find out the stupid thing floats! Which would have been great if I had been standing right there when it fell in, not so great since it fell in during a windy, high-wave storm in the middle of the night. 

Because I am ridiculously determined to retrieve my stool today, I get on a paddle board and paddle for an hour and a half up and down the shoreline. I also venture out pretty far into the bay when I see things floating to see if it's my beloved footstool. 

Nope. Just another waterlogged branch or log. Again.

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Yesterday, I received a text from the hubs reminding us of his anniversary:

"8 years ago today at about 4:30 in the morning, I survived a heart attack. I love you guys. Days like today make you thankful for the important things in life - you all are important to me.  So glad we are all together."

Me too, hun, me too.