I was GOING to write a post last night. A good one. Witty, clever, funny, informative. It was going to be GREAT.

And then our power went out.

One minute I was sitting in my room, playing around on Ravelry, the next, it was suddenly very, very dark except for the glowing computer screen on my laptop.

Now, this was our second outage of the day. Yesterday morning, there was a 2-car accident on Rt 10 that knocked down a pole or two and we lost power for a couple hours. Okay. These things happen. But … 9:30 at night? Maybe it was something to do with the wind, but, whatever. It was our first power outage in our new house. (Technically second, but the first after dark, and since they both happened on the same day, I don’t feel like quibbling.) ANYWAY, since it was the first time this has happened in this house, there was a bit of a scramble to remember exactly where we’d stashed the flashlights and the little battery-operated lanterns Mom likes so much. I prefer candlelight in power outages, but had to remember where my matches were, but yes, I started out with a flashlight, too, because it was faster and Chappy was freaking out.

When I say “freaking out,” I don’t mean he was having hysterics on the rug or anything, just that it was Different! Scary! New! Different! Weird! And, Different! So he naturally had to bark at it, though whether the “it” was the darkness or the electric company or the three of us for disturbing his pre-bedtime naptime, I’m not really sure. Whatever it was, though, he sounded the alert as soon as the lights went out. “The power’s out! The power’s out! Hey guys? Did you notice? The power is out!” All while we’re trying to call out to each other about flashlights and such and move around without tripping over the chocolate-brown dog busily barking every time we raised our voices.

Not that this was a BAD experience, mind you. First, the power was only out for an hour or less, so that’s not terrible. I gave Mom my iPod Touch to play with because she was bored and the little lantern-flashlights don’t really give enough light for easy reading. Dad got ready for bed because “What else is there to do?” And me? Well, my Netbook battery lasts for HOURS. Toshiba wasn’t kidding when they told me the battery life was great because I have yet to run it further down than 20%, and that’s with using it all day, so I turned my computer on. I couldn’t do anything with the internet, it’s true, but MS Word worked just fine, so I opened up my book and did some work. It’s amazing how much you can get done when there’s literally no distraction except the occasional question from down the hallway. (“How do I find more games? Ooh, Mahjong!”)

Naturally, when the power came back, Chappy thoughtfully announced THAT to all of us, too. “It’s back! It’s back! Things are making weird clicking noises, but the power is back!”

Anyway, that’s why you didn’t get a post from me yesterday. Yes, I could have written one at 10:30 when the power was back, but by then the inspiration had gone.

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