So dark, so very very dark

Last night I woke up and it was pitch black in the house.  You have to understand right off  I DO NOT DO DARK.  I can't breathe in the dark. Marty says the house is lit up so the burglars won't trip and fall.  I say it is lit up so the closet monsters and under the bed monsters can't get me.  Any way, pitch black house, power failure.  I opened the shades and no street lights, but a weird blue light is bouncing off the house across the street.  I groped my way into the guest room and opened the shades.  There is power several houses down the street. Not fair.

I start looking for the flashlights and my camping lanterns for an emergency.  Before we put the house on the market, I had emergency lights in every room.  The stager didn't like that.  So where the hell are they????  I stood at the stairs and looked into the black hole in the foyer.  What kind of monsters and killers were hiding down there?   I walked around and went back to the stairs.  I had to find a flashlight.  I knew there was one in the foyer.  I started down the steps, inching my way.  A bright red light hit me!  WTH  It was the motion sensor for the alarm. I kept waving my arms and found the flashlight.  Then I found the lantern in the back of the hall closet.  Light, no monsters could get me.

I needed to call PG&E to report the outage/get info.  The house phones are portable they don't work with out electricity.  We had the other kind of phone that are wired in, except they weren't wired in.  I couldn't fix them right then.  Also, no phone book.  Thank goodness for my iPhone.  I googled and found the power outage number and called.  They were working on the problem and the power would be back on at 12:00 noon.  It was 4:20 and I later found out the power had been out since 2:30. 

The blue lights were from the work area on the street behind us.  We were having major winds and several lines had fallen.  Nothing I could do but go back to bed.  We woke up after 8:00 to the low battery chirp of the burglar alarm.  Our battery on the clock radio died and the alarm did not go off.  I was late to school.   I called Ms H and told her no power, no hair dryer, no coffee, no heat.  I wouldn't be there to help.

Do you know how important electricity is?  Electric toothbrushes (luckily ours are new and held the charge), curling irons, hairdryers, coffee pots, electric ignition on the gas stove, computers, phones, lights, garage doors, freezers (went from -1 to 22 degrees) the frig, furnace, Internet, and on and on. 

Every time I called for updates on the outage, the fixed time changed.  At 4:05 P.M. the power came on. How did I know the power was on, the freezer warning alarm was screaming.