A Whole Heap of Random

Oh the post ideas that come through my head on any given day. I need to organize them better, or at least jot them down before it’s 9:45 at night and all that’s left of anything upstairs is this dim little flickering light bulb. Creativity and any type of organization is out the window folks.

Speaking of light bulbs…this morning at 8 we lost power. Chris was gone, I was home, kids were waking up. Breakfast wasn’t on the table yet. I ran down, thinking it may be just our home and flipped the main breaker off and attempted to turn it back on. It wouldn’t budge back in to the on position. My neighbor called. We were in the same boat. She called back about an hour later to report that her electricity was now back on. Not ours.

I called the electric company to confirm that it was just my home left powerless. They double checked, and yup, I had messed something up good.

I realized (after putting the kids shoes on and ushering them to the garage), that duh the garage door wouldn’t open. I wasn’t about to break something else and start pulling on cords and lifting up the door, so we retreated. The kids cried. I lost it. I mean, embarrassingly had a full out temper tantrum. Not to mention the entire time there was this LOUD chirping coming from upstairs. I, for the life of me, could not determine where it was coming from. I was sure it had to be one of the 4,563 fire alarms we have up there, so there I was, up on this bench, ear pressed to every one of them trying to distinguish the source.

“Dennis”, the electrician showed up very shortly after I called (my hero), and went to check it out. He came up a bit later holding a large black box and told me that he thought my breaker was shot. He was going to run to the shop and hopefully find one there. He was gone over an hour. We stayed outside the entire time because that chirping was driving me insane.

He came back with a new breaker. The kids and I trailed him inside to start making some lunch. The boys were cheering his name, “Yeah! He’s going to fix it!” “Yeah, the dentist is here!” (Ethan was convinced that his name was not Dennis, but instead Dentist and he was going to be working on our electricity and our teeth.)

As I was smearing some jelly on some bread, since everything else in my overprivileged life required a microwave or oven, the lights came back on. What a glorious moment. It’s like the clouds roll back and the angels start singing. Life can resume. I can open the fridge without fear of my milk spoiling. I can look at the ten clocks in my kitchen on various appliances and instantly know what time it is. It’s the little things.

But still, the chirping continued. Dennis the dentist left, and after throwing placing some food down in front of my children, I bounded up the steps to take care of the pest once and for all. So here I resumed my post, ear against every device attached to the walls. Pulling out batteries, unplugging wires, determined to put a stop to the chirp. There was a knock on the door.

I ran down and saw my neighbors standing on my porch. They just wanted to be sure that our power was restored and that I didn’t need anything. I smiled and said, “We have power!” They were glad to hear it and began to walk away. I reached for them both and told them that they must help me stop the madness! Brian went upstairs, and within seconds, I’m not kidding you – seconds says to me, “It’s your carbon monoxide detector.” He pulls it out, unplugs the battery, and viola, the beeping stops.

I love having neighbors like that who take care of us and are so willing to jump in and help us out! Even if it’s just unplugging a beeping detector!

After the entire ordeal was over, and my kids were in their beds during naps. I seriously had to laugh (and feel a bit guilty) about how much it affected me to lose power for three hours in my home. I was ashamed really. My attitude was rotten. I was sulking and stomping around like a spoiled child because my day couldn’t go as I had planned it. Our plans had to change. I had to improvise our meals.

It was no where close to a story of survival. Inconvenience at most.

At lunch that day I had to apologize to my children for my outburst earlier that morning. I asked their forgiveness. I hate when you realize after the fact that you had a teachable moment in your hands and failed to use it. I preach so often about patience, about not making the little things a bit deal, and yet I did exactly that.

Okay – I had no intention at all about writing an entire blog post about our lost power this morning. But there you have it!