That's the Night that the Lights Went Out in Knoxville....

"It was a dark and stormy night........"

I am sitting here on my laptop at a reading desk in the local library branch trying to get caught up on Facebook my teaching/grading work, as I am still in the dark at home right now. We're on day 2 of no electricity here in Knoxville, due to a freak storm that blew down trees over the power lines on almost every street in town. The storm only lasted about 10 minutes, but it has been almost 48 hours of chaos for the utilities crews to try and get things under control. Fortunately, there was no real catastrophe (no flooding, no tornado, no hail). Just lots of trees and lines down EVERYWHERE. As I type, the guys from Pike are working away on the wires just outside my house, so I feel confident I'll have light, water, AC, and cable restored when I return home later today. I feel confident in this....yes....I really do.

Ambiance has its place and time, but this is
just getting to be a little too much.

I've come to realize a few things in this time without power. Some of these things include: candlelight is nostalgic and romantic.....when you don't actually need to see by it; sitting in the cushioned glider on the front porch reading a good book by daylight is seriously underrated (it's not a Treasure Quest marathon, but it is an inexpensive and enjoyable way to spend 2 hours); you can utilize a brimming-full fountain/water feature in your yard for many things in an emergency.....things like filling the toilet tank so you can flush, washing your hands and shaving your legs, topping off the dog's water buckets -- since the well pump requires electricity to run -- and I was just about to find out how effective it also was for bathing when the Pike crew showed up on my street this morning. I was getting a bit frantic last night when I realized that not one utility vehicle had thus far visited the downed lines in my neighbor's yard in all this and I really felt pretty neglected. In fact, a KUB truck slowed in front of my house after dinner yesterday, then sped up and went on down the road. I ran out in the yard and did my best Kate-Winslet-at-the-end-of-Titanic impression (delirious, despondent, near-death), grabbing a steward's whistle and croaking out "Come back! Come back!" to the red taillights disappearing around the corner.

In all seriousness, I have remained pretty sensible about this, since 2 days/2 nights without electricity isn't that big of a deal, in the grand scheme of things. There was no tragic natural disaster, no widespread loss of life or homes, no harm done to my animals (other than my senior Beagle who is pissed that I have "turned off the AC" for some insane reason). But, it's amazing how dependent I am on things powered by electric and I have to say that I'm really glad that smart son-of-a-bitch, Thomas Edison, decided to invent electricity and not something else, like, eBay or the iPad.