A New Month
Fri., June 1, 10:50 AM
This morning I woke up to WQUN, which is not so surprising because I left it on last night. I really didn't want to get up. I drifted in and out of sleep until I heard Ray Andrewsen; at that point I knew it was after six. I also knew that Ray would announce the time regularly, so I snuggled in a bit longer…
About a quarter to seven I got up; the first thing I noticed was that the hall light was out. Darn; I keep that on to ensure that Husband doesn't trip on something during his nightly wanderings. Flicking the switch did no good; I walked through the house trying other switches, to no avail. (Fortunately, the radio has a battery backup.)
Well, we did have pretty impressive thunderstorms last night. Impressive enough that I got up in the middle of the night and shut down the computer. As I have noted before, the Cheesebox is all electric, so I am pretty powerless (hah!). I can light a candle or a flashlight, but I need brighter lights than that to read. I had to waken U.D.
She looked in the phone book to call the electric company. They told her there were no reports of outages. We both went down to the breaker box — I because I know where to look, and she because she would be able to read the labels. We decided there was nothing wrong with our system. We needed a bill with our account number on it; I know where I left it, but can I find it without lights?
Eventually I did, and U.D. phoned again. No outages? This person told her there were outages in our town as well as in two neighboring towns. U.D. asked about the other direction because “we need coffee — badly.” That one was all right.
So she called the local police — “oh, thank you, you were the first person to report it” (most of the world still asleep) — and she went out to get us some breakfast. I continued to listen to the radio. I would have phoned to let them know about the power outages, but I couldn't remember the number, and with my computer out…
And then Ray played one of my “rays of sunshine,” Tony Bennett singing “Firefly” in duet with Kermit the Frog. Now, intellectually, I know that is just Jim Henson singing along with Tony. But in my mind's eye (which still works), I see Kermit dancing and waving his arms. It never fails to bring a smile. I knew things would get better.
Soon U.D. was back, with stories of really nice, helpful people as well as mentions of really dumb, rude people (double-parked at both the entrance and exit of the parking lot, for example). And breakfast. She even brought a coffee and doughnut for Husband, because I wouldn't be able to cook oatmeal without a working stove.
While we were eating, we became aware that the digital clocks were blinking and the (brand new) refrigerator was running. Hello, power! I have always believed this neighborhood has some kind of priority just because all the houses are all electric. No one has a gas stove, unless they run it on bottled gas. We got back down to business. I ran a quick e-mail thanks to Ray Andrewsen and WQUN, thankful that I never depended on television for wakeup news. (He answered that Kermit said hi.
I think it's time to get on with my day. I have an appointment with the retina specialist this afternoon. What a way to begin the month!
