Last night at around 6:45 p.m., a storm blew through Lansing. The wind knocked a tree branch down that fell on the power lines that power my neighborhood, the neighborhood across the street, and the businesses on the main road a few blocks away. The boys were with my Dad and Jean having a movie/Funtyme Arcade/Dinner date, and at 6:45 p.m. it’s still light out, so that was okay. We located half a dozen pillar candles, Chris went around the house unplugging things, and we sat out on the front porch. Chris put Kaitlyn in her wagon a/k/a the “bus” and walked down to the corner to watch the men fixing the power lines, I walked up and down the sidewalk with her while she pushed her little scooter. Tra la la, no big deal.

By 9:30 p.m. the power still wasn’t on, and Kaitlyn was worn out, so we put her to bed in her non-lit by night light, no-fan-blowing room. Fortunately she went to sleep anyway. Chris and I sat on the couch and talked, and I read most of a book by candlelight. I could have used his Treo to at least email the client I was on the phone with when the power went out, but the Treo’s battery was almost dead. And by the way, why does it take a power outage to remind me that we should keep an extra cordless phone battery on hand as well? No power=no charger to keep the cordless phone battery running.

At 11:00 p.m. I couldn’t see well enough to read anymore so Chris and I went to bed and tried to get comfortable despite the heat, the lack of a fan blowing, and our loud neighbors who were apparently having a great time in the dark.

At midnight, the power came on, including the overhead light in our bedroom, and the downstairs television, which was turned up to full volume. We got up, turned everything off, but turned ON our bedroom fan, the boys’ fan and the air conditioning, and then went back to sleep.

4:00 a.m., power off. Kaitlyn started crying. I got up, changed her diaper, and tried to lay her back down. She wrapped her legs around my waist and wouldn’t let go. Our bed really isn’t big enough for three to sleep comfortably, so I laid down with her on our couch. We tossed and turned for half an hour until I gave up and put her back in her crib, steeling myself to ignore the crying. She went to sleep.

5:30 a.m., power on. Chris got up to check the time and re-set his alarm clock.

7:00 a.m. phone rings-Chris has overslept, he must have turned off his TWO alarms in his sleep. He bolts out of bed. I go back to sleep, and wake up at 9:00 a.m.

Stupid power outage. Stupid darkness.