Hello Darkness My Old Friend...

It was a busy weekend in my house.  Lots of things to do and running around.  Like many families even when I think we have a "quiet" weekend, it turns out to be busy.

As it tends to, Sunday night arrived faster than I expected or was ready for.  Seems like one minute it's Friday night and the next thing I know I'm telling my son to take a shower before "Bob's Burgers" so that we can watch it and "The Simpsons" together. It's kind of a Sunday night ritual that all of us (or at least two of us) sit down and watch together to wrap up the weekend.

My son made it downstairs just before the start of the show and flopped down on the sofa.  I was sitting on the love seat burning off some calories with my stand alone pedal exerciser.  I'm not the biggest "Bob's Burger" fan, but this weekend's episode with the reading contest and the mystery of the "attacked" therapy dolls drew in my dark sense of humor and I was really enjoying it...

That was until everything went dark and a "pop" (or maybe it was a boom?) went off in the distance.  It wasn't just our house that went dark; it was the whole neighborhood as far as I could tell.  The popping noise had me guessing that somewhere in the vicinity, a transformer blew.  So much for finding out who the perpetrator of the therapy doll crime was.  Instead it was time to climb upstairs in the dark.  (By the glow of my Nook which I had downstairs with me.)

Looking out the back window on the landing, I could see SOME light from the east, but it was obvious that some sections of the highway/road were without light while others (slightly to the south) still had power.

I had my son brush his teeth by can light...well, fake candle light as it was a battery operated Halloween candle with "blood" stains on it.  Then I got to shower in the dark while my husband read from his Nook and my son watched videos on his phone.  All good until the power on both would run down.  So it was a question of which would happen first.

Because our electronics are usually pretty well charged, I could read as well.  I was also able to find out via a text from PSEG when they expected the power to be back on (before 10) and check my local news page to see who was affected by the power outage.  (I figured the larger area the quicker they might be to fix especially if it was a busier area of town.)

After reading for a little bit, I put my book down and enjoyed the darkness.  Strange?  Well there is always so much ambient light in my life.  (Perhaps in all of our lives?)  The glow from electronic chargers.  The street lights that seep in the cracks of the shades.  Tonight I could have the shades up and still be in darkness.  (Though still not complete.)  It was quite nice and I almost wished that this happened more often.

Not that I'm for losing power or transformers blowing out.  But there was a calm that came with this.  It being autumn, it wasn't too hot so that we were suffering from the lack of air conditioning or a fan.  It wasn't too cold that we were shivering under piles of clothes and blankets.  The windows were open bringing in nice breeze and the sound of neighbors who went outside to talk and find out what was going on.  It was peaceful.

After a busy weekend with running around, it was a time to just be. 

I called my son into our room and the three of us sat on our bed (which is not king sized which makes things a bit cramped) and just talked for a while.  Not about anything special, but just talked.  It seemed like my son opened up a little bit. (Like many tweens, he's not a big talker with his parents.)  No one wanted to play the geography game. (A great game that I believe my husband made up where someone names a place and the next person must name another place that begins with the last letter of the first place. You need to use your brain a bit and it can also help put you to sleep on those frustrating nights where you can't!)  So we just talked and laughed a bit.  Not a bad way to end a hectic weekend.

Then the power came back on...earlier than expected.  It was time to reset clocks.  To turn off lights that had been on.  To reboot computers. To double check things and make sure everything was "ready" for the work week. "Normal" life had resumed.

But in some way, I miss the darkness and the calm that it brought for just a little while.