Tuesday, August 21, 2007

It's more fun when the lights are out

It finally rained at my house tonight. (Thank you all who prayed for rain on Monday.)
I checked the rain gauge and it said about 1/3 of an inch. I haven't emptied it in a while, but my guess is that since it's been so hot and dry, it was probably accurate.
Our power was out for about two hours or so tonight, which was OK. We're on city water and have really well insulated hot water heaters, so we were still able to give Nathan a bath. And flush toilets - those of you on wells can relate to that problem.
With the remaining sunlight coming through the window, I read Nathan his bedtime story. Dressed in his shorts and t-shirt, he watched as I turned the pages and read "Diddle, Diddle Dumpling" and "Jack Be Nimble."
Now that he's in bed I'm thinking back to my own childhood and power outages. My parents' house had a sliding door on the back that led out to the deck. One particular thunderstorm (which not only left us without power but also struck our pump on our well) we opened up the back door to cool the house. It was probably about this time of year.
I remember lying in the floor on a blanket with the cooler night air blowing over me and falling asleep that way. No TV, no lights. Just me and my parents and the night air.
Maybe some day we'll be able to do something similar and Nathan will have a rich memory, too.

2 comments:

Laura said...

You better put another message on the machine for me. I'm so glad the power didn't go off here earlier.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with both of you.