Lights Out Again

Day 67: This is us, Merry and I, in the dark again. Power went out some time between 3:30 AM when the Toe Attacker started trying to rake me out of bed, and 5 AM, which was how long I managed to convince him to sleep in, using the foot as a pillow instead of a game. He's getting better about that, but some mornings, he forgets his manners. In any event, when he woke me up again at 5, the house was dark. We got up by flashlight, turned on one of the "pocket light switches" (switch-operated, battery-powered LED light), and I navigated out to the camping cupboard where I took down my backpacking stove and made myself a cup of coffee. I was smart enough to make an extra pot yesterday in anticipation of this event (and for the record, I will drink coffee in any form except sugared or moldy). That part of morning taken care of, I turned on this "sparkle light," played some word games on my Kindle, whupped it at a game of chess and then decided that there had to be some fiberart I could do in the nearly-dark. By putting the pocket light switch in my lap so that the light was trained on the band, I managed to inkle about 18" of sheep, being extra super-careful that I wasn't catching any unwanted warp strings. Fried a piece of buttered sourdough on the camp stove for breakfast, thinking that would be a surefire way to bring the power back on. Nope, didn't work this time. Half an hour later, I heated up a second cup of coffee, and just as I went to sit down in my chair with it, the lights came on. It's magic how that works! You must sacrifice a certain unstated amount of precious stove fuel to the Power Gods before they will deign to consider your request for light. I think it's going to be a rough winter. And I keep telling myself, "It's almost Solstice. The Light is returning."