When candles aren't just for romantic dinners

I left the BootsnAll office at 5:40 last night after talking to Chris and finding out we had no power. I heard I-5 South was a parking lot from 405 to 205 (in other words, the entire length of what I'd need it for, and then some), so I opted for what is normally a reliably quicker back road. Silly, silly me. I forgot that "back roads" have stoplights. And stoplights need electricity. So, almost the entire drive home was completely jammed.

Oh, and to top it all off, I started the journey with only a quarter tank of gas, and the "empty" light came on when I was stuck in the middle of nowhere with no gas station in sight. Lovely.

I made it to a gas station by detouring slightly from what I thought was going to be the least tree-ridden way, and it turned out to be the quicker way home, I think. As it was, I didn't pull into my garage until nearly 7:30 - and this is a drive that normally takes me 25 minutes. Egads.

I came home to a well-lit house, so the power had come back on. Hurray! I got to heat up some leftovers in the microwave for dinner. Hurray! We settled in to watch some television programs we'd recorded when - just like that - the power went back out again, and stayed out for the duration. We lit candles all over the living room, and read magazines by flashlight until bedtime. Thankfully the power came back on sometime in the night.