Wind, darkness, and no flashlights......

Weather-wise, it was quite a day yesterday. It wasn't the horrible weather our TX neighbors experienced, but we had many of the horrible weather after-effects. Without the actual horrible weather. Odd.

The day started with warning of what was to come later in the evening and overnight. Bad warnings. The kind that have you stepping out into your backyard taking a *look-see* for things in need of securing from the winds. But....since it wasn't rainy it was hard to take things really seriously. Until the winds started. Then, even though it wasn't stormy, you felt the anticipation in the air as you went about your business and tried to not be blown away. Seriously. Pretty strong winds.

I made it home just after lunch and about an hour later the power went out for the next couple of hours. Again, no rain, no storms. Just the wind, I guess. Since the air has been on for days now, after the power popped I headed to the hall, where the thermostat lives, to turn off the air so when the power came back on the air wouldn't short out and leave me to die in these swamps that are heating up day by day. (whew! THAT was quite a sentence.) *We worship our air conditioners in these parts. You might be surprised the lengths we'd go to to protect them.

So, for the umpteenth time living in this house I find myself standing in the dark hall ready to slide the thermostat to off and only then remembering I can't see a thing without a flashlight. I guess I've conditioned myself not to grab a flashligt in situations like those. Yesterday it wouldn't have helped if I had remembered because....after I went back and got a flashlight, it didn't work. Neither did the two others I tried. And here's why. J. likes to keep anything he's ever touched or laid eyes upon broken things around for parts. Not in a special box marked BROKEN/PARTS or anything sensible like that mind you. Nope. He puts them exactly where the working ones should be.

I finally found a working flashlight (covered with grease from J.'s never-ending *restoration* of his beloved Fiat) and turned off the thermostat. I controlled my aggravation and anger because, you know, I'm practicing this *letting go* thing, and proceeded to do all the stupid things I do when we loose power. I walked into the kitchen to make a cup of tea, flipped the light switch and turned the knob on the stove before realizing -- big surprise! not gonna work.

I don't do well in dead quiet. We live close to the interstate so, if it had been cool enough, I could have opened a window and door and had the road noise playing in the background. But I wanted to keep whatever cool air I had trapped inside, so open windows and doors were out of the question. Then I remembered the hand-cranked radio in son #3's closet. Yes! Noise. Back I headed to grab that -- without a flashlight of course, but because his room has windows, that was doable.

Well, I walk into son #3's room and what do I find? I can't get to the closet until I move allllllllllllll the metal toolboxes filled with J.'s metal figures. !!!! But, still, even then, I turn and walk away, thinking how anger and aggravation isn't going to solve anything. How this can be handled in a more productive way. It felt good. (This *letting go* stuff's not so bad.)

Instead of calling or texting J. to tell him what a selfish bast**d he is how I wish he'd change a couple of things, I just let it go.... I didn't think about it -- didn't dwell on it and hold it close. It only came up later when he noticed a clock I had forgotten to reset. Ug! I hate resetting all those clocks. Anywho, it was only then that I mentioned the that the power had gone out. And that led to mentioning the flashlight situation, which led to suggesting he keep all the broken stuff he saves for parts in one box -- marked broken.

Our conversation went well. I think it would have gone even better if I hadn't made that comment about how he was just like his grandmom -- hanging on to broken things so you think it's there to be used, but it's realy useless. But, hey, it could have been much worse. I'm still learning.