Monday Afternoon at Our House!

I was typing out a letter to someone I correspond with on political matters when we lost our electricity this afternoon. Actually, I had just sent the email to this unfortunate gentleman. He actually seems to be a very nice man, though I have never met him. Somehow he added me to his email list, and when he sends out a letter to his list, I almost never agree, and thus feel obligated to tell him my perspective. My email was a rather long one and honestly, I almost wish we would have lost power, before I hit send.

But in regard to the electricity, I always kind of like it when we loose our power. It slows everything down, makes us rethink our plans and revert to more old fashioned, healthier living. Instead of TV, computers, and radio, we dig for candles, bring in firewood and contemplate menu plans if it seems like it will be off for awhile. Today, I kind of had a feeling it would be a while.

It was a relatively clear day, with the sun trying to sneak through foggy clouds and it was actually quite calm, after last night’s strong winds. Really, there was no apparent reason for it to go out. So, I called the electric company to find out what was going on. Six thousand homes in our area had been affected the message said. A feed from the larger electric company into our electric system had been damaged, or needed work, or some such nonsense. I don’t listen very well on things I don’t understand. The only thing I knew is there was no time frame given, and the problem sounded difficult enough that I thought it might be awhile before it was fixed.

So we settled in. I read my book while there was still daylight, and Matt finished up his school work with daylight moving into candlelight. Sam was home today, so he made a fire and we all waited to see how long it would be. As it started to get dark, we lit more candles and decided we should play a game. We set up the card table in front of the fire and Matt chose a game from the closet. Really it is a shame we don’t do this more often and that it takes something like the electricity going out to motivate us that direction. We often play games at my folks or when there are other family members around, but when it is just the three of us, we just don’t seem to do it like we did when Matt was little.

It was about 3 or 4 hours that the power was out today, I guess. Just enough time to make me late in cooking dinner, but giving me plenty of time to beat Matt and Sam in the game we played by candlelight in front of the fire. It was a lovely afternoon. When the lights came back on, we ignored them and finished the game before blowing out the candles and before Matt went out to feed his horse, while I started dinner.

With dinner now behind us, this evening finds Matt playing Flight Simulator on his laptop, Sam playing Solitaire on the desktop, and me blogging while waiting to see if my political email pal will counter…I yi yi!!…but it is winter after all, and at least the fire is still crackling in the back ground.

Oh boy! Bingo!..There’s my buddy with his response to my email. He really is a faithful gentleman.  ;-)