Power Outage

So I have this side job sorta thing where I dogsit for people on vacations. I literally move into their house for the weekend and take care of the dog, water their plants, and bring their UPS packages into the house. It's a pretty awesome gig actually because I get paid to snuggle a dog and play house without the cost of vet bills and mortgages! I even get my own bathroom, which in my opinion is a little awesomer than getting paid! But it's not quite so awesome when the power goes out.

I was on Facebook and checking emails when suddenly the screen goes black, the computer stops humming, and all the lights go out. I'm scared of the dark even in my own home, but it's a little more terrifying when it's a different house and I can't remember where the homeowners have placed the life sized stuffed dog this time. I've nicknamed that frightening thing the Hound of the Baskervilles.

At this moment, I am super thankful that I still have one bar left on my cell phone's battery because I again discovered just how useful that device is as a flashlight. I used it to help me see as I dug around the kitchen drawers looking for matches to light the candles I found. I was so desperate for light that I didn't even care that the tiny matchbox had a UNC Tarheels sticker on it. In fact, I did not even have the would-be-normal urge to set fire to the entire box just to see the UNC symbol burn. These people are totally getting a Duke matchbox for Christmas.

Now that I had a source of light, I found myself ridiculously bored. I couldn't get back on the home computer, my laptop battery was almost dead, I couldn't watch television, and I found that it's very difficult to read by the light of an unpredictably flickering candle. And I couldn't go anywhere because my car was in the garage with the door down.

After an hour of darkness and remembering that I needed to take a shower, I called my sister to come and get me. By the time I had returned to the house with a mag light that could double as a deadly weapon, the electricity had come back and I did a happy dance. And then I watched some Disney channel and enjoyed some half melted ice cream before going to bed.

So that was my adventure for the week. God bless the man who discovered electricity. Mr. Franklin, you're my favorite dead guy for today.