Better Living Through Electricity

We finally have our electricity on, after days of cold and darkness following the big windstorm of 2006.

On Thursday evening, at the height of the windstorm, our power went off, but I still managed to make it to work on Friday. Only a skeleton crew actually showed up, though, so we sat around and yakked like college students in a dorm bull session, and then midmorning I went out on a food run to the only fast food place in town that was open, Jack in the Box, where I sat in the drive-up window line for nearly 45 minutes to get a sackful of delicious breakfasts of sausage-on-a-croissant.

So I spent a nice warm day at the office while She Who Must Be Obeyed was sitting at home, freezing her ass off and getting more and more disgruntled.

When I finally rolled in around 4:00 in the afternoon, she was more than a little surly, not to mention negative and bitter.

"What's up?" I said, casually tossing my hat and scarf onto the footstool. I really should have known from the look on her face that she had not had a good day.

"You want to know 'what's up'?" she hissed. "I've been here freezing to death while you've been sitting around your nice warm office drinking coffee and eating croissants."

"And surfing the Internets," I said. "But this isn't so bad. Think of it as an adventure, like winter camping. What's for supper?"

"I don't DO winter camping!" she screamed, smashing a lit Coleman lantern over my head.

So, after I smothered the flames under my woolen stocking cap and drew some eyebrows back on my face, I took her out for a nice dinner at one of the downtown restaurants that had its power on and then we came home and layered ourselves with winter clothing. A couple glasses of wine later we were all right and amused ourselves listening to mp3 versions of Xmas shows from the golden days of radio (Jack Benny, Life of Riley, etc).

On Saturday we got away, and today the power is back on, the house is warm, and all's right with the world. At least this little corner of it. Two streets away they still are in the dark. It's all in the luck of the draw. And where the Suits from Puget Sound Energy live, apparently. Those neighborhoods seemed to get their lights back on almost immediately.

But I'm sure that was just a coincidence.