Electricity

The plan was that after the kids were in bed I was going to bring my laptop into the (air conditioned) basement and post some recent cute/funny stories about the kids and some recent pictures and listen to the Red Sox game while Bill watched and made sure I didn't miss any good replays.

Bill made dinner - panini on the grill (lesson learned: don't put the bread DIRECTLY over the flames if you're doing it on the grill...all you get is black on one side.)  But after trimming off the burnt part, the sandwiches were delicious - prosciutto and fresh mozzarella and basil-from-our-garden.  He also made vishy-swah...which I know is spelled INCREDIBLY WRONGLY but I don't feel like stopping to look it up.  And he grilled zucchini-from-our-garden as well.  It was a yummy dinner.  Of course, Alex being in the mood he's been in lately, he took one look at cold pale soup and announced sadly that he didn't like any of that food and didn't want dinner.  He eventually dunked a pepper biscuit in the soup and ate that, and then ate some prosciutto (which Bill called "special ham" for Alex's purposes) and that was about it.

I blame the heat for that.  Yesterday was about 8 million degrees outside.  Hottest day so far this summer...ozone alert so the kids didn't play outside at daycare...I was actually glad to be at work because of the air conditioning.  Bill did crazy outdoor things like weed part of the garden...and crazy indoor things like make a chicken stock for the soup. 

So when the sky started darkening a little before dinner, we looked forward to whatever little cold front army was invading.  And during dinner, the fun started.  We sat and enjoyed the approaching flashes of lightening...and the thunder...and the cool breezes...and the RAIN!  And when Alex said that they wouldn't be able to go to the zoo because of the rain, I said it's only raining right now...let's see what happens in the morning. 

And then the power went out. 

Which was fun, initially.  All the better to watch the thunderstorm and lightshow with, my dear.  Julia occasionally pretended to be scared of the thunder, but I don't think she really was.  We finished eating and moved into the living room to watch the sky through the big front window.  I love storms. 

Eventually Julia actually asked to go to bed, so I brought her up to her crib.  The room was getting hot again, since the AC had shut off along with everything else, so I opened the other window in the room and hoped for the best.  It took a while for her to settle down.  I even brought her back downstairs for a little while, just to hang out with the rest of us, but she really wanted to go to sleep. 

Eventually it was Alex's bedtime too...we put him to bed in our room at first, but it was too hot up there by this time (the power had been out about an hour and a half at this point...so we let him go to sleep in the basement on the couch.  I read to him by flashlight for a bit and then went back upstairs and he fell asleep.

I read by flashlight and Bill played electric guitar without the electricity for a good hour at least.  Bill's been practicing Rush tunes...he and my brother-in-law get together on occasion and play a few tunes...Jacques on drums.  Bill had been practicing a solo guitar part for some song before the kids and I got home.  He's been playing a lot of Rush this summer...

Well...the power stayed out.  Bill went to sleep downstairs with Alex - I lifted sleeping Alex up while Bill folded the couch out, and that's where they stayed.  I went upstairs and slept in our bed...in the breeze-less heat of our room, so I could hear Julia if she woke up.  Which she did, several times throughout the night of stifling hotness and humidity.

I checked the time on my cell phone after each waking episode...we went to bed at about ten thirty...Julia woke me up at about midnight...about two thirty...about four...

And I dozed uncomfortably in between wakings.

And then a loud, long BEEEEEEP woke me up and immediately everything started coming back on - my alarm clock started blinking 12:00...the beep was the digital display on the stove coming back on...the fridge came on, probably the AC in the basement came on...

And then...loudly...at precisely five in the morning...out of the relative silence...(forgive me if I can't type it perfectly but I don't know how to type sound...)

Pseeeeeeoooooooooowwwwwwwwwww....(and some drum stuff here).....

A modern day warrior
Mean mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean mean pride

(da-dom-pa-daaaaaaaaaaaaah, da-dom-pa-daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)

Though his mind is not for rent
Don't put him down as arrogant
His reserve, a quiet defense
Riding out the days events.
The river...

I leap  out of bed and, laughing at the beautiful absurdity of it all, run downstairs and meet Bill coming up from the basement, a grin and a little look of sleepy confusion on his face. 

I shut the stereo off so the kids would stay asleep a bit longer, and opened some windows, and figured this was something to type about this morning.

And now I can hear Julia banging her tin cup on the bars of her crib, so it's time for me to go.

Comments

[Tigerlily :)]

I love the attempt at trying to type out drumming "sounds"... brought a smile to my face this early morning. Supposed to be another hot day here too, and my PC is upstairs (no A/C) :( Blah humbug.