Lights Out...

6/23/12, 9:20 PM, still no lights. At just after 4:30-4:45, we go hit with a rather violent thunderstorm that poured down rain punctuated by the rat-a-tat-tat of pea sized hail. We had just gotten out of the pool and dried off, Daddy had just finished grilling up the Italian sausages, and Granny had just left for the evening.

All was well, Rose was making a colossal mess with her hot dog bun (give this child a single grain of rice and it will exponentially explode until the kitchen floor is covered), Eva was bargaining with us on how many more pieces of sausage she had to eat before she got carrot cake, Baba was doing the dishes, Daddy was trying to relax from cooking...life as usual.

Shortly after the storm, and it was a doozy, all seemed to be calm, just as we were all settling down and Rose was getting into Toy Story 2...PHHHHHT...lights out. This was around 6:45, 15 minutes before bedtime. Hmmmmm...well okay, it's almost bedtime, this shouldn't be too bad.

wrong.

Technology brings it's own set of comforting noises that you soon learn can be quite alarming for three-year-olds when they are not there. The hum of the Air Conditioner or the fan has been a constant in the lives of our girls at bedtime and nap time. Without this white noise, you suddenly hear just how much traffic is on our street, or just how loud the kids are down the street as they scream and play. Plus, no night light! A call to the Electric company, thank goodness for Cel. phones, revealed that the whole town was out and that the lights will come back on...sometime during the evening. E.g., they don't have a friggin clue. 

This turn of events caused both girls to get very uneasy and after trying to get them down for 45 minutes, we all ended up in Baba and Daddy's room. The problem with that is that Eva wants to sleep. Rose, on the other hand, in the presence of her sister, wants to play! We lasted for about an hour and a half before we couldn't deal with it any longer and carted them off back to their rooms. Eva grateful...and with battery powered turtle night light on, she found her bliss within 15 minutes.

Rose...poor Rose. She cried and whimpered because she had gotten scolded by Daddy for being too precocious in our bed. Not to worry, Daddy, after making Rose stay in her room for several minutes alone, went back in to soothe her and talk to her about why she got scolded.

So now, both girls are down, thankfully. Daddy is down. Baba is up writing by light of laptop and flickering candles...the irony here is not lost on me. An exciting evening for the girls, albeit a little scary. Their night lights have been turned on so they will come on when the power is restored, hopefully before the twilight turtle in Eva's room and the Twilight Ladybug in Rose's room go out, they are timed to go out after 45 minutes.

In the meantime, I'm waiting for it to get a little darker. I'm hoping with the entire town out, I'll get to see what the night sky is supposed to look like. I doubt we'll get the constellations or brilliance of starlight we saw in Moloka'i so many years ago....

damn...lights came back on. What time is it...9:45...3 hours. Oh well, so much for stargazing. I need to turn on AC's, check on little girls, post this now that I am once again connected, good or bad, to the world again and retire myself.

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I peeked outside...stargazing would have been a bust anyways, it's still overcast. Never realize just how much light we cast until all the power goes out. Before the lights came back on, you couldn't see any of the clouds. Now, their underbellies bounce back our existence reassuringly. Oh well, girls are asleep, air conditioners going, night lights on. Balance has been restored to our little household. Bon nuit.