He says four days, I say five

Our power was out for five days, or four according to Matt. Technically I guess he's right, though I count four days, starting from 9am Wednesday and ending around 6pm Sunday. That's five workdays if you will, of going without power!

(candlelit breakfast for Emery)

Our "hardship" was nothing compared to what others have suffered as a result of the tornado that whipped through the South last week. That being said, I'll confess I didn't have the greatest attitude most of the time over not being able to run the dishwasher, make some coffee, cook a normal meal, watch a DVD, or even vacuum!

I did have a turning point on Friday night, though, where I think I just settled in and accepted our situation and tried to see what we could learn from it all.  Here's what I discovered:

• Power isn't conducive to sleep. Without power, when the sun sets, the day is basically done. Sure I could try to read or piddle around the house, but with only a headlamp, that's kind of a pain and doesn't last for very long. Plus, with all the darkness, my eyes were getting pretty heavy! So I just accepted that the day was done, turned in super early, and got much better rest as a result.

• We don't see our neighbors nearly enough! When some of our friends/neighbors got power back before us, we quickly transferred food to their fridge and I would be over there three plus times a day to retrieve milk, cheese, etc. Had the power not been out, I might not have seen these friends at all!

• Not everything on the Internet needs to be read. I did have Internet access on my iPhone, but it was limited, so I limited my browsing to mainly just e-mail checking, and news searching (desperately looking for any tidbits of info on when we could expect power to return!) and realized I probably squander valuable time each day just reading things I don't even care that much about on the Internet, probably as a way of avoiding tasks that really need to be done. :)

• Power makes me a lot busier. As soon as we got power back, I began scurrying around the house, cleaning what I could now see, loading the dishwasher, the washing machine, cooking, etc. In contrast, when we were without power, I spent a good portion of my time in a hammock. Staring at the sky. 

(this picture was taken on Easter, before the power went out, but you get the idea.)

So, am I thrilled, elated and so grateful that the power is back, when there was a good chance it could have been another week before ours was restored? Absolutely. However, I'm trying to take heed from the lessons I learned and spend a little more time with friends and neighbors, wind down earlier at night and make sure to spend as much time as possible in a hammock.