all hail P G and E

Alas, the lights are back on.  I didn’t think I cared until I found myself feeling giddy upon hearing the long lost hum of our leaking refrigerator.  All hail P G and E.  Now that it’s back on, I can’t believe how bizarre and miraculous it is that there is a functioning system of wires carrying voltage through all kinds of terrain so that when I flip a switch out here in the middle of nowhere, a bulb lights up.

here are some bland but vital statistics from our 5 days without the miracle of electricity:

• number of puppy teeth found ( and removed from ) in baby Nola’s mouth:  1
• number of people in attendance at my highland games birthday party – in the dark: 51
• number of guests who believed the darkness was an intentional way of creating an “old world scotland” feel for the party: at least 1 
• number of cabers tossed in a rainstorm at the aforementioned lightless highland games: 12
• pounds of  haggis eaten: 3.5
• days since anyone in our household has had a reasonable nap:  3
• length of time for power to be restored according to the official Petrolia rumor mill: 8 hours to 13 days
• number of times precious headlamps were all lost (4 in total) and then found:  13
• number of blizzards preventing the visiting aunt janelle from getting to the airport for scheduled flight home to seattle: 1
• number of clean pairs of pants remaining in our house: 3
• number of visits from the Sears repairman: ZERO
• number of  calls from the Sears repairman: ONE (he does care!)
• number of weeks since repair call was made to Sears on behalf of our ailing washer: 8
• pots of neaps and tatties served at the highland games bday party: 3
• number of times aunt janelle has visited petrolia during a multi-day power outage: 2
• number of bad movies watched on a laptop computer in the dark:  4
• number of movies watched on any type of technology in the last 9 months (prior to the last week): 1
• number of dogs sleeping in our house: 3
• number of dogs that actually belong to us: 0
• length of time spent memorializing our dog Faucet at his funeral: 14 minutes
• number of planning discussions about the funeral in the preceding month: 27
• number of times the neighbor’s dogs have knocked over and scattered our garbage: 9
• furthest distance from dirty diaper on grass to garbage can of origin: 200 yards
• amount of ice cream eaten as an emergency measure to prevent spoilage, melting, and loss: 4 pints
• number of presidential primaries won by an anti-war candidate of color: 1
• number of yelps of joy emitted upon hearing primary results: 19.7
• number of generators stationed on the premises in the event of a power outage: 0
• percentage of Petrolia residents living off-grid and therefore un-affected by the outage: ~ 75