No, it wasn’t a dark and stormy night. As a matter of fact, last Saturday was a pleasant evening – a little on the warm side, but nothing to complain about. But, this has been a crazy Spring and Summer. And like so many other times, a storm cell located itself right over our neighborhood and cut loose.
Where it had been light out, all of a sudden it was dark (and stormy), and it was pouring down rain. Then, some lightning and thunder and all of a sudden, we lost our power.
This was about the third time this Summer. I grabbed my flashlight and headed for the big candles. These are big brass candles that I picked up out of a catalog when I was in Vietnam. The brass stand is three feet tall and the candles add two additional feet. They are so tall that you can actually talk to them. Their wicks are also big and thick and if you are not careful where you place them, you may find a black soot spot on the ceiling. I always tell them not to leave a black spot.
The last time we used them, Carole suggested I shorten the wicks. I did, and now I couldn’t get one of them lit. Too short a wick and/or too much wax on it. I carried the troublesome candle over to the one that was lit. I figured I could light it with the large flame from the other candle. I never got it lit, but I managed to pour hot wax all over my hand (I really talked to that candle).
Whenever we lose our power, I always call our electric company. You never talk to another human being, but I want the iron lady to acknowledge that they are aware of the fact that I am sitting in the dark. Finally, after being transferred from one iron lady to another, I was told that there was a “widespread power outage” in my area and that a thing-a-ma-jig had gone out at a substation. I was informed that our power would be back on by 11:00 PM. That was only two hours from the time I called so things were looking up. I was asked if I wanted a call back when the power came back on and I said OK (closing the loop).
Carole dug out a couple of clip-on lights and we both settled down with our books. My clip-on light kept getting weaker. I thought my eyes were giving out. Then, it to went dark (but not stormy). Using my flashlight – which keeps going and going – I checked out the clip on. It needed two triple A batteries. Carole, who some time in her childhood must not have had the battery she needed, has at least 20 of each kind. I was back in business.
In the past when the power company said 11:00 PM, it really meant 10:30 PM. I was convinced that they always put in a fudge factor to ensure they would be on time. Well, 10:30 came and went. Then, 11:00 came and went. No power. At 11:15 PM, I again called the Dominion Power Company to see what went wrong. I ran the iron lady gauntlet again and was told that my outage had already been reported and they didn’t need anymore information from me. Me? I wanted information from them. None was forthcoming.
At 11:30, we went upstairs to bed. No air conditioning, no ceiling fan, and it was too hot and muggy to open a window. Nikki, our eleven-month-old Sheltie knows she is not allowed in bed. But, with everything so screwed up and under the cover of darkness, she made two attempts to bunk with us.
At two in the morning, the house lit up. I got up and went downstairs to turn everything off. And since I was up and Nikki was staring at me, I took her outside. Finally, I climbed back into bed to get some sleep. I conked out right away. Ah, and yes, at 2:30 AM, I got my phone call from Dominion Power advising me we had electricity. Closing the loop at 11:00 PM works, but at 2:30 AM, I was feeling pretty stupid.
Yesterday, I had a nice chat with both of my candles and they seem to be working just fine.
