Back in the 21st Century

We finally got our electrical power restored yesterday afternoon. That's just slightly over a week living a lifestyle from the last century. Evenings were impacted the most. It was incredibly interesting to see how the family dynamic changed. We would sit around by candlelight talking or reading. I started teaching my younger son guitar lessons. Everyone went to bed early. It made me realize how much less stimulation people received a hundred years ago. For the twenty-first century family it was boring! No phone, no TV, no computer, no Internet, no X-Box, no stereo, and no iPod (because you can't recharge it). Even with a dozen candles burning, the light was so dim I would start to fall asleep at 8:30 pm. It was an experience we will remember for a long time. I know there are hundreds of thousands of Houstonians still in the middle of that experience. Three cheers for the hardworking linemen who are restoring power to two million people, one circuit at a time.

BTW, on Saturday, before the power came back on, we decided to pick up a few MREs with our FEMA ice. Our stock of salvaged food in our ice chest was just about gone, and we had never tried them before. Actually, we had never even seen an MRE before and we were all curious to try it out. The food is better than I would have expected, although naturally some things are better than others. The little chemical device to heat the food is ingenious. I can see how the soldiers would get very, very tired of it, though. In college we had very good dorm food, too, but about the third time through the two week menu rotation it started to get pretty old. Three more cheers for our hardy soldiers, for whom bad food is the least of their hardships.