Power Outage

Abby was already in bed and sound asleep. It was about 9:30 at night and still hot outside. The neighborhood was silent except for the whir of everyone's ACs. Lee had just clicked on the computer and I was considering shutting off the TV to read in bed for an hour or so before going to sleep. Just then the power flicked out.

The AC shut off. The fans died. It became instantly stuffy.

Lee and I both looked outside. The entire street was dark. In the amount of time it took me to locate candles and matches, the house temperature rose 5 degrees. Yuck. We started opening all the windows. The air outside wasn't even moving. Ugh, the house was becoming unbearable. Lee went outside on the back patio to call the utilities company. I soon followed. It was so hot inside!

Once outside, we started hearing the other neighbors come outside. Pretty soon everyone seemed to be in their back yards. People complained about the heat; people asked the moon to glow brighter; someone lit their tiki torches. I suddenly felt like I was thrown back to the 40s when people would hang out on their front porches and shout pleasantries to their neighbors. It was almost surreal. Pretty soon we went back inside and opened the front doors wide. People were talking outside on our quiet court too.

It was peaceful.

What ever happened to hanging out with your family and neighbors, in no hurry at all, and just talking? Too bad we've lost that...