Powerless

First I was out of options. Then I was powerless.

Fortunately, the power is now restored.

This evening, at about 6:50 p.m. CDT, our power went out after flickering a couple of times. There was a mild thunderstorm in the area, but we've seen much worse without the power going out. We expected the power to return in a few seconds because it always has in the past — in 9+ years in this house we've never had a power outage longer than a minute or two, and those have been very rare.

Tonight the power was out for about an hour and a half. It finally came back when I left to buy some ice to keep food fresh in an extended outage. In hindsight, I should've gone out immediately.

Another factor which made this event more exciting was the presence of two children in the house. These things are always a much bigger deal for the kids than for the parents. It was nearing bedtime (and nightfall) and kids are much more afraid of the dark than us old folks. So 1 of 2 and 2 of 2 were running around collecting batteries and flashlights and radios and acting like we were suddenly living in the dark ages — or in Lebanon.

I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow brings!