After a night of howling, raging winds, we awoke with no power this morning.

Kayte and the kids weren’t sure if their plans to go out to the woods for the day would still work. We didn’t know how long the outage would last nor how widespread it was. We didn’t know what condition the roads might be in.

With a few cell phone searches and some calls to the right people, we pieced things together. The power might be out until evening, the outage was local, and the roads were ok.

By candlelight and flashlight, we hatched our Plan B.

The three of them got ready to go, and I started thinking about how I would spend a day without power and with very limited internet (no unlimited data plans here!).

It was a bit thrilling. I looked forward to making some progress on Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, which I’m slowly working my way through.

(That I “need an excuse” to read for fun is a topic for another day.)

And then, about 20 minutes before they had to leave, the power came back. Huzzah! Things seemed a little more normal. Back to Plan A.

I helped them get packed into the car, righted things that had blown over in our yard during the night, and started anticipating my regular, fully-connected, house-to-myself Thursday.

Kids strapped in, trunk packed, and window scraped, Kayte noticed that the gas engine hadn’t kicked in yet (we have a 2012 Prius hybrid). Then, “oh, all the warning lights are on.”

After a few more tries, we realized: this car ain’t starting. No one’s going anywhere.

So, what’s your Plan C?

Still reeling,
James