At Lokes’ friend Mike’s house tonight, just as we entered the front doors of his home and introduced ourselves to Tracy, his wife:

Tracy: Hello, Raeven!
Raeven: Hello, Aunty Tracy.
Tracy: Very nice to meet you!
Raeven: (smiles politely). Please may I play with your kids?

 

As of 10.37pm tonight, our power came back.

We were watching Coach Carter on Lokes’ notebook when without ceremony, our Christmas tree lit up, well, like a Christmas tree. We spent five full minutes hugging and kissing and prancing and skipping about like two mad idiots, silently of course, for the girls were sound asleep in their tent.

I almost cried tears of joy. Almost. Because there were things to do, such as switching on all the lights just to make sure we weren’t hallucinating. And then the dishwasher. And then the garbage disposal (you can imagine the stench of a week of accidental washings over the wrong sink). And then the washer.

Man oh man. We’ve never appreciated electricity this much in our entire lives, combined. Thank you, Thomas Edison. Thank you, hydropower. Thank you, coal. Thank you, natural gas. Thank you, good people of Puget Sound Energy. Thank you, Karli, Kristy, Rachel, Mike and Tracy, Mia, Sharon and all you wonderful, thoughtful people who have offered to share your heat and home with us so generously. Thank you, Microsoft, for the hot showers and for tolerating our two noisy little monsters in your canteen.

Six months ago, I cried thinking that should anything happen to my family, Lokes and I would have to go it alone.

I can’t tell you how very nice it is to be wrong today.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I want to spend some time alone with my PC.