In the dark

The power went out today for nearly two hours. Thankfully I had enough daylight left to find matches and candles, because I'm wholly unprepared for such a situation. Couldn't find a flashlight, and even if I had, I'm quite sure it wouldn't have been functioning. Got lucky finding the matches and had to call for help finding the candles. Had to use my cell phone, because the only home phone we have uses electricity. Ate cold pasta (not uncooked, just cold) with the kids by candlelight which they thought was the best dinner ever and then decided to go for a drive. Had to call again for help once I realized the garage door runs off electricity too. Apparently the red cord that I try to stop from passing over my head before I'm able to jump in the driver's seat by running around the car every day actually has a function. I was told that had I been born in 1970 I would have know that, but I highly doubt it. Cord pulled, we headed off to Walgreens. The store that is two minutes from my house here looks exactly like the one that was two minutes from my house in NY. I mean identical. Creepy and comforting at the same time. Anyway, we tried on Santa hats with elf ears and played with squish balls. Probably should have bought some batteries and a cheap phone that would work as long as the phone line doesn't go down also, but why spoil my complete lack of emergency preparedness now? Came back home to an obviously powered neighborhood and breathed a sigh of relief. It's fun for a little while. But as it gets darker and colder and longer, one can't help but think about the CNN interview where somebody who would know said the most crippling and yet disturbingly easy terrorist attack would be a wide-scale shutdown of electricity that could potentially last for months. In light of that information, the dark isn't any fun at all.