No Power

Electricity is a pretty nice thing. It sure comes in handy when one comes to making dinner, enjoying an evening and that little thing called air conditioning. You see, living in the Midwest in the middle of July usually means it is on the warm side. I don’t do warm.

Sleeping is a wee bit easier when it is comfortable temperature wise. When the temperature made it a teensy bit warm upstairs, no hot, we decided to exile ourselves to the basement. We had a problem there though, for it still smelled of smoke from our weekend extravaganza with the fire department. I have an allergy to dust and mold. When you add those ingredients together, you can transform me into not a happy person in just three minutes flat. I know that amazes you since I am known for my stellar personality, but at times like these, I get, shall we say testy. However, put my hubby in a warm place, and he gets past testy. Pick your own adjective because he may not like me posting my choices online.

Another obstacle with this whole no electricity bit is that we have five saltwater tanks. These tanks have lots of electrical cords in order to supply chillers, light, water flow, etc, etc to the tanks. When we fail to have electricity, all of these goodies required start leading to death of lots of creatures, causing loss of lots of money and making us say goodbye to some very special pets. People called to check not on us, but instead on our tanks. I am thrilled to say all is good with the tanks. We lost nothing, which is pretty darn remarkable when you consider that we have five tanks and had four days with no power.

We kept them alive since we have a large generator. We bought this metal machine when we feared the prospects of Y2K. Although Bob checks to make sure that it starts at least once a year, it has stayed unused, sitting covered in a great big box, all these years. It was fabulous for our four days minus electricity. It was unique walking through the neighborhood. You would either hear these generators roaring away or big chainsaws clearing away fallen branches. Every once in awhile, long electrical cords would stretch across the street duct taped to sidewalks. We shared our generator with the fabulous new neighbors next door. We had extra plugs. We had plugged in five tanks and two refrigerators, still leaving us room for a box fan or battery charger. They snaked a cord through their home, out the kitchen window across their yard to our driveway. There’s nothing like making a strong bond with new neighbors.

Although it all comes down to the simple fact that we like having electricity, there’s a part of me that liked it better without it. You see when we didn’t have power, we all gathered outside in the evenings. One evening, we were able to have a super dinner grilled out by our neighbors. Other times, we would just sit around an outside table and talk. That’s a rare if not extinct occurrence nowadays. People drive in air-conditioned cars into attached garages where we shut the outer doors before we greet any outsiders. We stay glued to our televisions and don’t dare stick a head out to glimpse other life.

Power returns but maybe the power of God remains more hidden. We don’t see the spectacles of nature found right in our backyard. We can’t enjoy fellowship if we play it safe in our own family rooms. Quiet devotion time is shortened because we must hurry to watch prime time TV. I’m not about to turn off the air-conditioning, but I can remind you to not leave out God for you see, life is good.

One Way God Uses Chronic Pain to Say Life is Good:
- You get pushed outside to see nature, some of God’s handiwork.