Wednesday, November 26, 2008

I'm such a dork.

Oh. My. God. Somebody just shoot me and put me out of my misery ! I must be getting old and senile. Ooooh, big surprise, huh? I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. And I was having a good day. Well, actually, it's still a good day, I can't allow my stupidity to ruin everything. I learned to live with it a long time ago. Besides, it's Roy's biggest source of entertainment.

Okay, here's what I did. I let our water get shut off. (Not one word, Chris!) I got an extension on the bill because of Heather's birthday, and I forgot to write the new due date on my calendar. So . . .while I was out walking the dogs, they shut off my water. I came home, fed the dogs, went to the grocery store to get some supplies for dinner, blah, blah, by the time I figured out what happened, it was too late to make the payment because the office was closed. So guess who has to get up early and go pay the bill? The kids don't have to go to school tomorrow and I really wanted to sleep in. Damn, I'm such a dork.

So anyway, that's just the beginning of today's insanity. When Jake came home from school he brought a houseful of friends with him to celebrate Thanksgiving break. (Jake will use any excuse to have a party. ) In spite of having a houseful of loud, rowdy teenagers and no tap water, I managed to cook a lovely pot roast dinner for everyone. As I was cleaning up, the stupid electricity goes out! Everyone got silent and I yelled,
"This is NOT my fault!"
I immediately looked out the window to make sure that every one's electricity was out. Yup, the darkness that resulted from the lack of street lights matched the pitch black inside our house.

Now, as you may, or may not have noticed on my lunar phases chart, tonight the moon was only 1% lit. So having no lights gave a new meaning to the word DARK. I grabbed my lighter and started lighting candles. While everyone else walked around with their cell phones open to light their way. (Thank goodness I'm a candle freak.) Strangely, I noticed that the sudden darkness didn't result in any complaints from the family room, where Jake and his girlfriend were snuggled together on the couch. Since lighting candles didn't seem to improve the the status quo, I sent them upstairs to hang out with dad, who is usually quite gassy after a pot roast dinner.

That's another thing. Without electricity and the hum of the computer and refrigerator, and sounds of T.V.'s and radios from every room, the world becomes strangely quiet. Olathe is the county seat of Johnson County, and since the old west days, it's been a major thoroughfare for trains. (you can't swing a dead cat in Olathe without it landing on a street that has at least two railroad crossings.) So as we sat in the silent darkness, the sound of trains passing only a few blocks away (Which we don't, normally, even hear) sounded like a low flying helicopter directly over our house. For a minute, everyone stopped talking and looked at each other as if to say,
"Is this more than a simple power outage ? "
Without electricity there's no immediate communication from the outside world, for a moment, we realised, we had no way of knowing how many people were without power or why. I walked to the front door and opened it. When I said it was 'just a train,' everyone breathed an involuntary sigh of relief. Still, Roy suddenly announced that he was going to take a drive and see how many people were affected by the outage. Heather and her girl friend decided to go with him.

While I sat with Jake and Chrissy by candle light I started to chuckle. I said, "This is great, I'm toting water from the neighbor's well (actually their outside water hose) to make dinner, and now, we're spending the evening by candle light without T.V., computers, radios, or any of our modern conveniences. It feels like we've gone back in time 100 years."
They both said , "yeah" in unison. Then Chrissy said,
"Kinda boring . . . and Jake added,
"Sucks. . ."

Eventually, Jake discovered the many wonders of hot candle wax to entertain himself with while he and Chrissy discussed how many new babies would result from this power outage nine months from now. (I gotta watch those two!! ) Shortly after Roy and the girls got back, the lights came back on. As if in celebration, they tuned the T.V. to a music channel and cranked it up louder than normal. (at least it seemed louder than normal.)

Anyway, life is back to normal now - well, mostly. I better get myself to bed. Tomorrow is only Wednesday, but it's going to be a LONG weekend this week. In addition to paying the water bill, I have to gather supplies and get started on our annual tradition of snowflake making which begins tomorrow, plus I will have twice the dishes and laundry to do ! UGH! I just can't get a break. Goodnight, and if I don't see, or hear from you before then, have a happy Thanksgiving !

Love,
Susan

4 howled back:

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... hot wax, a dark room and baby conversation. Yep, you best watch those two!!

LOL

Glad things are somewhat back to somewhat normal!!

Love you guys!

-C

Wait. What? said...

I am with ya on watching the teens - You got your hands full!!

As for the bill mistake you are so not alone!!! But I am impressed and in awe at how you made things work regardless!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Cat

Anonymous said...

I am SO glad I am not there yet with teenagers. can you imagine how I'm going to feel when my kids get boyfriends and girlfriends and I am still single and dateless?!?!?!

Anyway..they turned your water off? Bastards!! That's just crazy, and illegal I would have thought... :)

Anyway, I'm glad you guys had an interesting day xx

Gypsy Jasmin said...

Haha! Yes you had better watch them. I did get pregnent during a snow day that was actually an ice day... with Christian... as a teenager... under your watch!