So the power went out

Not for long, obviously, since I’m, like, totally blogging, but for a few hours.
There’s nothing like a sudden minor emergency to make you realize how unprepared you are for an actual emergency.

“Candles — right. I think there’re some tea lights? Somewhere?”
“Wow, I have a lot of frozen food. And, like, dried lentils. And, um, oh hey, wait! I made that pudding earlier! Yay, pudding!”

My tea lights and pudding were inadequate. (What do people do when they’re alone and they can’t read or listen to music?) A friend’s house had escaped the power outage, so I went over there. Driving when there’s no streetlights and lots of dark houses feels like being in a zombie movie. After a while, I decided I couldn’t leave Snag alone any longer. (He has some other names now, mostly focused on his appetite for destruction, e.g. Orange Alert.) On the way back, I saw that the grocery closest to my house had its lights on. Stopped in to get some ready-to-eat food and actual emergency candles. Other folks had similar thoughts. The two people in front of me each had the same two items in their carts: candles and PBR.

I jokingly said that by buying candles I was ensuring that the power would be on when I got back to my house.
And it was.

But the wind’s still blowing like mad. I keep hearing screeches and thumps outside. And it’s supposed to keep on like this for some time…