Day Seven

Words can't even really describe how surreal it is to have power and Internet at work and complete darkness at home. I went out to dinner last night and came home around 9pm. Zac was in bed asleep and my parents were back in their bedroom. No one seemed to notice me hollering into the moonless night that I didn't have a flashlight and, "Hello??! Can someone help me?" went unnoticed. I eventually found my way back to my parents' room and stole one of their flashlights so I could get ready for bed.

The week of not sleeping well as finally caught up to me. I got out of bed this morning, but had the strange feeling that I would fall asleep while driving unless I got back into bed. Sure enough, that's where I went and it was lovely. I called into work around 10am and finally woke up around noon. I blame four days of sleeping next to Zac and three days of having to try and fall asleep with my neighbor's generator parked directly outside my bedroom window. It's like having a Harley idling next to my night stand, except this Harley runs 24 hours a day and keeps food at proper temperatures for refrigeration and freezing. I'm told that it also runs a tv. Bastards.

When we heard on the battery-operated radio that it was going to take days, even weeks to fix the power, I don't think anyone really believed it. The power goes out, then comes back on. That's the normal way things work in the industrialized world. This voyage into indoor camping has got to come to an end soon. I miss frozen food and a microwave. I really, really miss watching tv after I come home from work. I miss showering without a flashlight.

I guess that's just tough for me and the other 61% of Houston-Galveston area households that don't have power. We are officially in the plural now. It has not been just one week - it's been weeks since we've had power at the house.