The most precarious thing about rainstorms is not that they can
cause flooding or prevent the kids from playing outside or give you
bad hair (although all three are true). It’s that you never know
when the electricity is going to go out.
The most precarious thing about rainstorms is not that they can cause flooding or prevent the kids from playing outside or give you bad hair (although all three are true). It’s that you never know when the electricity is going to go out.
For instance, take the other night. There we were milling around the house arguing over whose turn it was to hold the remote, when, all of a sudden – ZZZZZT! The power went out. (Oh, all right. It didn’t really make that exact sound, but you know what I mean.)
At first the silence rendered us too stunned to speak. When I finally came to I figured that we had simply blown a fuse and all we would need to do is throw a few switches and viola! The power would be back on. However, the problem with this particular theory was, 1) when I asked if anyone happened to notice where the circuit box might be, I was met with blank looks, and 2) we soon realized it wasn’t just our house without power, the entire neighborhood was dark.
Now you’d think with the high rates we’ve been paying in California all these years, something like this couldn’t happen. And if it did, there would be teams of highly trained professionals leaping into action so that everything would be back up and working in five minutes. Six tops.
Ha! Ha! I say.
Now let me just stop right here and mention that I don’t have anything against the power company and, deep down, I know that they’re doing the best that they can with the fazillions (yes, that’s a fake number) of dollars they’re raking in each year. But when you’re trapped in a dark house with people who fight over things like who gets a half a teaspoon more chocolate syrup on their ice cream, there is no help that can come fast enough, I tell you.
And, of course, the thought of finding a working flashlight anywhere in the house was simply a laughable idea. Oh, not because we don’t have one. We do. Somewhere. But the thought of finding a flashlight is ridiculous because we all know that when the lights go out all memory of anything in the house that gives off light is automatically erased.
We were saved when my husband accidentally found a book of matches and a couple of leftover birthday candles hiding in the pantry.
Now, if anyone had told me an hour ago that we’d spend our evening huddled together in the afterglow of a wax number five, I would’ve thought they had varnished the wood furniture with the windows closed.
But face it, power outages make people do strange things. And what was even stranger was that my kids, the very same kids, mind you, who could be wrestling a herd of hungry lions and still declare that they’re bored, ended up playing charades. Yes, a game that doesn’t come with wires or cables or has to be plugged in. And the really freaky thing was that they were having a good time. It was amazing, really. I mean, there we were: The kind of family who usually can’t go 15 minutes without turning on a computer or playing a CD, and we were having good time watching a 9-year-old acting out the tornado scene in “The Wizard of Oz.”
Oh, sure, there’s a lesson in here somewhere. Maybe it’s that I should bone up on my charades game. Or maybe it’s that we should all slow down once in a while and enjoy and simple things in life with our children. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s that we should all keep a supply of flashlights and fresh batteries on hand. Well, whatever the reason I don’t have time to figure it out now. It’s raining again, and I have to make sure we have enough birthday candles to last through the night. Not that we’ll need them.
But that’s the thing about rainstorms. Anything can happen.
