Powering Down

The following was originally posted at DC Metro Moms on November 3, 2008. 

On a recent autumn afternoon there was an isolated local power outage due to the untimely and unfortunate blowing up of an electrical transformer in my Pepco grid.  Okay, I thought, accidents happen, no big deal.  The house was warm and the sunlight filtered in through the windows softly enough to provide calming light and I didn't have to be anywhere soon.

Having just arrived home from some errands I plotted out the remaining afternoon time in my head.  Feed baby a light snack ... give baby a nap ... write ... clean-up ... exercise... It seemed like the perfect afternoon in the absence of that migraine-inducing hum of all the household electronics.  The quiet was intoxicating and I was anxious to accomplish a few tasks with natural energy rather than the twitching buzz I often get when I have the television on all day long and move from the vicinity of one compact-fluorescent bulb to that of another.

Just as I was taking the baby to his room for a nap I realized I couldn't play his sleep music. Well, ...Huh. That sure throws a wrench into a peaceable nap-time. Then, it occurred to me that working out during nap-time wouldn't be too possible either; I certainly couldn't do a workout-DVD and the treadmill wouldn't even work.  My next vice of time is my writing, of course, but DOH! The computer uses power too. Forget catching up on TiVo'd shows from the week or even starting dinner. Laundry and vacuuming were off the table too.

And then the baby had trouble sleeping because of all that lusciously delectable quiet that was ringing in our ears.  Just as I got the baby settled and decided to pick up a .... BOOK, and lay down and ... RELAX, the power came back on with a muffled Bpfof sound and I hurried over to my computer to check my email and send a Twitter message. 

I didn't realize mothering depended so much on electricity.

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