Daywatch

So somewhere during the six AM hour on Friday morning we lost power. By we I mean 98% of Chico. Unaware of how bad the outtage was, I got up & prepped for work in the dark and discovered that the cruddy Burger World I was on loan to that day happened to fall into that 2% of Chico that still had power. Imagine being trapped in a double-sized elevator for nine hours with six other people and thousands of people queing up to enter. Now imagine you have claustrophobia and the other six people are either brainless mouth-breathers of hundred-mile-per-hour bitches and that was my day. I have to go back to that awful place again on Friday. The first experience made me homicidal.

At any rate, the power situation still blew come clock-out time. More than 500 miles of power lines were downed, 500 power poles (I found it an odd number to pop up twice); more than 30,000 people in town lost power (as I type this, some 17,000 still have no power and I feel thankful I'm not one of them).

Yesterday was an interesting day of driving around and looking at all the carnage. So many of our beautiful trees fell. A playground dead. Street signs on walkabout. Returning home to huddle together for shared warmth and watch the daylight as it receded into candlelight and an entire city gone black.

Blessed gas-powered water heater: one candle-lit mango bubble bath alone with my thoughts and the steam. Reading erotic horror and making love to Denise by candlelight. Making the best of our forced vacation in Lud.

One AM today, awakened by the sudden arrival of our bedroom light. Blessed power. Kiss Denise's laptop hello. I missed you friend, electricity. Camping is a lot more enjoyable when you plan for it.