Monday Meanderings - 6.1.2015

On this day, 53 years ago in Port Lavaca, Texas, I said the smartest words I have ever uttered. "I do."

The adventure continues. It is common to lose things. Happens all the time. Car keys, nail clippers, store receipts, pot holders. Wait, how can you lose a couple of pot holders? I mean, you get them out of the cabinet to handle that hot bowl in the microwave and suddenly they disappear! Yes, we looked in the pantry closet, and in the oven, and in the trash, and in the refrigerator, and in the recycle bin, and throughout the entire house -  AND THEY ARE STILL MISSING! Did we inadvertently add fiber to our diet? It's a mystery.

Last week was an humbling lesson about taking things for granted. Especially electricity. The last 2 posts have been about the Great Memorial Weekend Storm at our house, and about being without power for approximately 36 hours (we weren't home when the power came back on).

We are somewhat prepared for temporary outages; we have some safety lights that come on when the electricity goes off, and some larger lanterns for back up, and of course candles to put in the far reaches of the house. But after they are deployed, that's about the limit. There you are, in the semi-darkness, waiting for illumination.

And TV. And WiFi. And land-line telephone service. Are the cell phones charged? Usually not by the end of the evening. Limit the times we open the refrigerator door and stuff should be good for - how long? The small freezer is probably good for a few days, isn't it?

No coffee maker. Maybe I can boil water (we do have gas) and pour it through the basket. We can scramble some eggs, bake a couple of potatoes in the oven. Wow, how long has it been since we baked potatoes in the oven?

No reading, except for the Kindle App on the iPads. How long will the batteries last? Quick peeks only at Twitter and the news apps to preserve the battery charge on the phones, but it is storming outside; it would be good to know if we needed to move to the hall closet. There's always the charger we can plug into the car outlets. Wait! Our current phones use different connectors. Curse you, Apple. Might as well go to bed.

Morning light and damage assessment. Sure could benefit from our electric chain saw. Need to make a bunch of phone calls. Hope the batteries hold up. We have local Amazon delivery - maybe I could order one of those solar cell phone chargers. However, the sun is not shining brightly at the moment. Wonder how much those portable Honda generators cost at Home Depot. I wonder if Home Depot has power?

Need to take a shower, but it's really pretty dark in the bathroom. Helps to take down the curtain, but there's not much light in the shower itself.  We comment to each other about how we automatically flip the switch when we go into a room, or the closet, and having just said that, turn and flip it again.

Okay, we have done all we can do here. Let's head for a nearby motel, where there is electricity, and lights, and TV and WiFi - and coffee. Did you remember to forward the phone? Oh, wait.

Our prayers are with the thousands in Central Texas who have suffered horrific loss and devastation in the Memorial Day floods. In that context, our brief power outage was a tiny, minor inconvenience, not to be confused with an actual emergency.