The Power is Back On

The joke at our house is that whenever Johnny goes away (without the rest of us) something "catastrophic" happens.

There was the time that he went caribou hunting for 10 days and a tornado swept through town, cancelling school for a week and taking our power and well with it. Quinn was 2 1/2 and Jakey was just a year. Or the time he went on another hunting/fishing trip and an ice storm tore down the power lines and left us in a cold, dark house for 3 days.

Where we live, the power goes out if a breeze blows, so we have adjusted to it. My mom and dad, however, wouldn't stand for another one of "Johnny's trips" with their daughter and grandchildren unprotected. So, after the tornado, my parent's bought us a generator for Christmas. Wait, now that I think about it -- I was fine unprotected . . . it was only after we gave them the grandchildren that suddenly the need for protection cropped up. Funny how grandkids will do that, no?

We don't always start the generator right away if the power goes out. It may come back on in a minute, an hour, a couple hours. . . or 5 days. We never know. (Mad props to the Boys of AEP! We love you guys . . . especially you, Pooh!) The great thing about it is we know that it is there and can turn it on when we need it . . . like after a terrible storm.

If you lose power a lot you'll know what I'm talking about here: When our power goes out, we just kinda gather together in the living room with the emergency stash of batteries, candles, flashlights and get cozy together. Sometimes we read, sometimes we sleep, talk, play games, whatever. But we are all together in one room, because it is what seems right and comfortable.

Then, the power comes back on. It is like waking up. Slowly and deliberately we go around and check on everything. Make sure everything is working, power restored. If the generator is on, we turn it off and switch back to main power. (SIDE NOTE: Our generator is hooked in through our fuse box in the garage with an emergency switch thingy that won't let the generator power bleed backwards to the main power line to injure the wonderful AEP boys while they work. It's pretty cool, and thanks to Alan, it works.) I don't know if it is just us, but it is a slow pace and not frantic at all . . . eventualy we get back up to our normal pace and go on the way we do until there is another power outage.

The last few days have been a tornado, a terrible storm, a catastrophe all rolled into one. Another one of "Johnny's trips". Although he is not alone on this trip, we are going on it together and the boys are coming, too. Our power went out for a little bit, but fortunately my mom and dad and sisters and brothers-in-law and other friends and family were here to get the generator running for us. We were not unprotected, not even for a minute. We spent a lot of time in the living room, together, waiting for the power to come back on. And like always, it did.

Last night, Quinn went to stay the night with Zack. Johnny and the brothers went carp shooting. Jake had the computer and X-Box to himself, so he played video games until his eyeballs bled. I fell asleep watching a movie, and stayed asleep.

Picking up a normal pace.

I know there are other storms on the horizon. They are going to come. We are going to need our emergency power again, and I'll turn on the generator when needed. I don't plan on doing any part of this storm without proper power and support, believe me.

But for today, we have switched back to main power. And that feels good.