The Night the Lights Went Out

The lack of sound was unmistakeable. The power went out while I was cooking supper last night. Peace reigned within our little world ...

Having no idea if we would be without power for two minutes or two hours, I immediately grabbed the food that was cooking in the oven and placed it in the barbecue which was already fired up and cooking the rest of our meal.

Ahhh ... no distractions. Just cooking and visiting with My Youngest who came up out of the dark basement.

After supper, my Second Son asked My Youngest if he was bored. "Because I'm not," he stated. "Now is a good time for me to teach you how to mow the lawn."

And that is what they did.

It is hard to sit back and read a book when the rest of your family is doing something productive. I wandered into the house and noticed the motionless ceiling fans ... and all of the black cat hair they had collected throughout the spring/summer seasons. The time had come.

I had time to clean up our supper dishes, all four of the ceiling fans and sweep the kitchen floor before I heard it. The ceiling fans, the fridge, the air conditioning all kicked in at once. The sounds of restored power.

The boys were still outside mowing the lawn, so I continued my household cleaning and managed to water the plants and vacuum before everyone congregated within the house and went back to their power-sucking solo activities.

Blackout = Family Time + Productivity

Power = Segregation + Technology

I enjoyed our powerless hour. I still need to clean the windows and blinds. Maybe someone should hit the main power breaker and render us powerless more often ...