candlelight and quiet

Late morning today, a mysterious power outage struck the area. Showering after aquasize class at the local pool locker-room, total darkness suddenly engulfed the place. It was quite a peculiar experience. I was suddenly aware how silent darkness is. Sound is not really related to light, but the two blended together as a single occurrence today. Backup lighting resumed normalcy in a short moment or two, and laughter broke out in the locker room. We all imagined what it would have been like in total darkness, groping for towels and clothes and attempting to find the right locker. Whose clothes would we have been wearing, when we blindly stepped out into the daylight, outside the pool locker-rooms? It might have been a fun experiment, or a Freshman prank, but I was relieved that we didn't have to face those dilemmas ourselves in our dripping state. Dealing with no hair dryers was enough of a test, having to go outside at 25 degrees to our cars.

The power came back on a couple times during the day, but didn't last. Before I could get a hot meal cooked for dinner, we once again were sitting in darkness. (nothing an early morning fisherman can't handle.......notice headlamp on "the Mr.") We lit a dozen candles and enjoyed salads in the quiet.

At 10:30 Wed. night, the power was restored. A local radio station explained the reasons for the outages, according to the power company's story. We sat in a fully lit room, once again appreciating the many things we take for granted.