Off the Grid

The wind roared and the freezing rain and sleet and bits of crunchy snow blasted into the region Thursday and took out trees and power lines like an angry giant armed with a sledgehammer.

It hammered, and hammered, and hammered. It broke things and twisted things.

But, oh, was it ever beautiful. Tree limbs and grasses looking like they had been dipped in molten glass. So beautiful with the sun glinting off them like so many haphazard prisms. I have pictures. I'll have to try to get some up later.

It wasn't quite 24 hours, but it felt more like 40 by the time the power kicked back on Friday afternoon. We were all pioneer-like, hanging out in front of the fireplace, playing board games, making coffee on the camp stove, snuggling up in blankets and trying to remember not to flush the toilets. The toilet part, it didn't last long. When the words "Don't flush the toilets, they don't work," popped out of my mouth, Unruly had to rush around the house and flush both of them just to prove to me that yes, they did work, see? Yes, they did, but now we were completely out of water because you used up all the water in the pump tank to flush empty toilets, see? No water, no hot chocolate. See?

You would think that with no power I would find something productive to do, like work on my cross stitch project or get a few chapters of one of the many books I'm reading done. Afterall, no power meant I didn't have to vacuum. Or do laundry. Or do dishes. Heck, I didn't even have to think about cooking! There were no movies to be watched or Internet to be surfed. Heck, I didn't even have to get dressed! Hello to lounging around all day in a bathrobe and slippers! But I got nothing productive done.

And you know what? I'm okay with that. When was the last time I had the chance to spend hours of uninterrupted time with my family, doing family things? Snuggling up with the whole family in front of a crackling fire just chit chatting and goofing off? It's been awhile.

Although if I have to play one more game of "Life" any time soon, someone's getting a shoe up the booty.