For weeks now, I've been wishing for some quiet time...wishing for the world around me to just s-l-o-w down a bit. Well, I got exactly what I wished for.
Yesterday's torrential rain wreaked havoc on many parts of the island and at 8:30 in the morning, the power at my place went out. It didn't come back on until 4:30 in the afternoon. In my completely wired world, that is a looooong time to be unplugged.
I did manage to sneak away for a short meeting which meant navigating the flooded, debris-covered roads, but once I was back at home things slowed down to a snail's pace. With no electricity to bring my gloriously powerful PC to life, I was forced to check emails on my phone. Having to peck out responses on my tiny keyboard was painful so the theme of the day was short and sweet. Phone conversations were also kept to a minimum because my battery indicator only showed one lonely bar...dear Santa, please bring me a car charger for my cell phone this year?
I was able to do a little assembly work for about an hour when the sun actually peeked out from behind the clouds and lit up my studio through my big picture window. But when the clouds and rain returned for an encore performance, I reluctantly realized that there was nothing left to do but clean. It wasn't exactly how I wanted to spend the day, but I got a lot done and listening to Christmas carols on my little transistor radio brought me back to my childhood days of sitting at the breakfast table before school, chowing down on my bowl of dry cereal (I still do this), watching my mom pack my dad's lunch, and listening to the morning radio show on the old radio that had to be turned at a slight angle to get the best reception.
I got all that because I had no power yesterday. What a priceless gift.
