I can’t vacuum, but I can dust (not that I’m inclined to do either, of course).

I can have Raisin Bran Crunch, but not instant oatmeal.

I can pour myself a glass of drinking water, but I can’t wash my hands in the sink.

I can file all of my old bits of paperwork, but I can’t create any new ones.

I can’t write this on a keyboard, but I can with a pen. (But not for long, because the carpal tunnel pain is back in a big way.)

When I woke up this morning and realized I had no power, I panicked. A little. Because I didn’t really care if I’d missed the start of the work day. But no, it was exactly 8:00 am, to the second. I woke up unaided at the very moment I needed to. Just one of those biorhythmic mysteries, I guess.

When I phoned the Boss to report the problem, he asked if I had a book to read. Since I didn’t have heat or water along with electricity, I was glad I did have a book, that low-tech source of entertainment. I’m so glad they’re not obsolete yet.

That’s how I spent most of the day, sitting bundled up in the recliner, alternately reading and sleeping. Since even my garage door is electric, I couldn’t get out, but I didn’t want to ramble around in public without a shower anyway.

It was a long, dreary morning. The extra sleep didn’t help me feel rested, just more sluggish than ever. That’s a phenomenon I noticed when I was in retail, that the less busy you are during the day, the more exhausted you are at night.

At 1:22 pm, I heard the fax and scanner resetting themselves, and I thought the nightmare was ending. Then I started roaming through the house and discovered that entire rooms were still blacked out. No refrigerators were running, and there were no lights in the bathroom.

Even more mysteriously, some appliances plugged into the same surge protector as those that were working were nevertheless not working themselves. The VCR had come on, but the CD player wouldn’t do anything. Worse, and yet another source of panic, the brand new receiver I just bought to replace the one fried in the brownout failed to respond.

Then at 1:29 pm, everything was suddenly working, even the receiver. I set the clocks, took a shower, and phoned the Boss, in that order. Everything seemed right with the world again, although I never did regain the energy I lost during the five and a half hours of isolation.

You can never take anything for granted out here in the country. A little after 7:00 pm tonight, the lights flickered, flickered again, and died. There was no question of reading this time, because I was plunged into total darkness. I could barely find my way to the candles and flashlights, and even that didn’t provide enough light to do anything more than scribble a few lines in a spiral notebook.