The light of the extremely full moon wasn't quite enough to compensate for the fact that I had no electricity tonight, starting at 5:00 pm. The sun was still out when I left for class at 5:30 pm, but by the time I got home four hours later, all the help I had came from candles and one fading flashlight.

On the bright side (so to speak), I can't get any faxes from the Boss during the outage. Nobody can leave a message on my answering machine. Ummm...I can't really think of anything else good about this situation. No TV, no computer, no automatic garage door, no running water.

I have one old-fashioned phone that doesn't need electricity. This is the only time I use it. In fact, I have the utility company's special outage reporting phone number stuck on it with a post-it.

So I called PG&E after I got home from class. They are "aware" of the problem (good) and their repair crews should have power restored by Wednesday, 6:36 pm (not so good, and by the way, huh? 6:36?). If I don't have power for 48 hours, I'm invited to call back and talk to a live person. If I'm experiencing a life-threatening emergency, I should call 911. If I'm merely grossly inconvenienced, well, that's just too bad, isn't it?

This cavalier attitude was so hard for me to believe that I dialed the number again. Same message, plus something that hadn't registered the first time. Something about "scheduled maintenance." If that's really the case, boo on PG&E for not giving me a heads-up. And boo on them for doing it during May sweeps.

PG&E doesn't care about the food spoiling in my refrigerator. They can't smell the sour milk. They don't have to throw out the rotten tomatoes and spoiled mayonnaise. That's all on me. I'm the one who has to eat the mushy ice cream sandwiches.

Sitting in the dark with a flashlight perched in the crook of my neck has made me a bitter person, hasn't it? But it also makes me grateful that I finished the week's payroll today. And I'm also kind of glad I did three loads of laundry yesterday. Oh, and I feel fortunate to have one last portable radio that still works.

That full moon that's been beaming through the bedroom window keeping me awake the last few nights is now quite welcome, although it's still not much compensation for the rest of it.