Last night, because of this fun ice storm, we lost electricity for almost 12 hours. Late in the afternoon the lights started flickering. At first we joked about it. “Oh all we need is for the power to go out too.” Then we started to get a little concerned and lit candles all over the house. Within about an hour, just as I had put a new load in the washing machine and was thinking about what to make for supper, the lights went out. Great.

But what ticked me off more than the fact that we lost electricity, was that our neighbors across the street didn’t. All night long I could see them over there with their lights on watching TV. One of our neighbors has a light on their garage that is on almost all the time. And last night was no exception. Every time I went by the window I saw that bright light staring back at me. It was saying, “Ha ha. We have power and you don’t. You’re going to starve and freeze to death and we’ll be over here watching Letterman.” It really sucked.

We didn’t really have anything to make for supper. At least nothing that didn’t require a stove [next house we're getting a gas stove] or a microwave. So Lee decided he’d brave the weather and head out to get some fast food. He let the car run for well over a half hour before he took off. And as he was pulling away the wheels jerked off the cement. They were frozen to the ground. There’s probably still some rubber stuck out there.

Lee drove around and all the stores and restaurants were closed. He finally found a Hy-Vee that was open a few miles away. As he was leaving they said the electric company had called to tell them to put everything from the coolers in to the freezer because they were probably going to lose power too. So Lee made it just in time.

The three younger kids dined on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Keaton and Justis had turkey and cheese sandwiches. And Lee and I had salads. <sarcasm>Yum</sarcasm>.

All night long I heard a lot of “I’m bored” and “This is the most boring day ever in my entire life.” But we did have some board games to play. The kids played Scrabble.

We also had the Gameboys all charged up. And Lee popped a movie in to his laptop. So even without electricity the kids still got their fix of electronics.

I spent most of the night reading. It’s sad that it takes the electric company to make me actually sit down and read. Hopefully I’ll keep it up and finish that book.

We were all in bed by 11pm. I believe that’s the earliest this house has been sawing logs on a Saturday night in a long time.

We got power back around 4am. I tried to make sure everybody’s lights were off when then went to bed. But I guess Justis’ was still on. It woke him up. And the TVs were still on, so they started playing too. Around quarter to five I could hear the downstairs TV on so I came down to check it out. Lee was down there watching it. I said, “what are you doing?” He said, “I’m getting in my daily fix of TV time.”

I guess we all rely a little too much on our electricity. And I think we’re all glad to have it back.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 12:53 pm and is filed under A day in our life. Comments are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.