Lights Out

You don't realize how much you rely on everyday conveniences until they suddenly disappear. At 8:00 tonight some moron ran into a power pole down at the Outback Steak House and knocked out the power to half the westside of Idaho Falls. Luckily Benson knew right where the flashlight was, and I had candles lit all over the house within minutes...but then what? It was so peaceful and quiet for the first few minutes, but then it got downright boring. No TV, no music, no internet (in fact no computer at all) and as I'm listing these things I'm realizing how sadly addicted we are to our technology and how we live our lives constantly "plugged in" to something. Before Riley came along, Benson and I would have played a card game, but Riley likes to eat things like playing cards so that was out of the question. We got a little creative (or desperate, depending on how you look at it)...namely Benson crawling under Riley's crib and then using the flashlight to coax him to crawl under there with him. It was a fun fort for a while but understandably restrictive on movement. Without power our heat shut off, so we decided a trip to WalMart for milk might not be a bad idea. 1 1/2 hours and $118.39 later (yeah, milk prices have gone through the roof!), we came home to find the power restored and our energy addicted lives could go on once more.