24 Hours

24 hours. No TV. No lights. No air conditioning. No electricity.

That's what life was like for my family in the past 24 hours. A huge, nasty storm rolled in Saturday night and lit up the sky with lightening and loud rolls of thunder. Apparently, it knocked over an electric pole and splintered a gigantic tree, which took down more power lines and half of an old produce shack.

Thank goodness we have a corded phone so we could report a power outage at our home to BGE. Then, as I was on hold probably because everyone and their mother was calling to report just like me, I thought to myself "you know they probably have figured out that I don't have power at my house and listening to this recorded message is a HUGE waste of my time". Still. . . my husband and I took turns holding the phone up to our ear in hopes that SOMEONE would pick up. It's like we're on the island of the TV show LOST in the Hatch with the old Commodore PC and the green blinky light. HA!

Talk about the luxury of flicking on a light switch! It's just so amazingly automatic that my hand and brain know exactly where a switch is on the wall. I bet I could go around my house blindfolded and know exactly where every switch is located.

It's also so amazing how easily bored I can become with not having any electricity. So much of what I do involves power. Cooking a meal for my family. Microwaving a bag of popcorn. Turning on a light to see if my son has any poop in his diaper. Charging my cell phone that is flashing low battery.

You know, I could actually read or sleep or just sit and be quiet for a while. And actually I did. Today, I finished reading the entire Bible. My husband and I joined a class at church called Rev Up Your Faith: The Bible in 90 Days. Now I am really excited about continuing my journey as I start CBS (Community Bible Study) in September. Now I have no excuse to complain that a passage is too long because I actually read the entire book of Revelations in one day. How many times can you say that?

It was nice to not have electricity for 24 hours. Despite the ice cream thawing a little bit, we got to talk about more subjects than if we had the television on. And we got to enjoy the sound of silence, minus the revving generators. Oh and hopefully our electric bill will be much less next month, but I'm not counting on it.