While watching Superman Returns, the part where Superman goes back to rip out the chunk of kryptonite from the earth:

Raeven: Why is he going back, Daddy?
Daddy: To save the world.
Raeven: Because Superman RETURNS?

So it’s been one natural disaster after another in the last two months. First the floods, which turned our pastures into lakes. Then the snow, which was nice actually, but not so much for those whose cars were stuck by the roadsides. Last Thursday, one of the worst windstorms in the history of windstorms hit the Puget Sound area, knocking down trees and plunging millions of homes and businesses into pitch blackness. Ours went out around 9pm the night itself, and we’ve been living in darkness ever since. It will be one week tomorrow.

The first night, under the light of several aromatherapy and Halloween votive candles, we turned on our gas fireplace furtively, while desperately surfing on Lokes’ phone to the Puget Sound Energy website to check if our gas was piped in. Having a fireplace is a completely foreign concept to us, so we didn’t want to suddenly run out of gas because there’s a tank somewhere underneath the house that we had to go fill. Imagine our relief to know that this source of heat, at least, would go on for as long as, well, we paid our bill. And with this knowledge secured, we kept the fire burning, and camped out in front of it, building a tent for the girls using a bedsheet and our couch, stuffing pillows and blankets to make a warm bed for them in front of the fire. At night, we played shadow puppets to keep them entertained, read stories under torch light but they of course, preferred to play trampoline with the tent bed.

Since Thursday, I have finished three four books: Michael Crichton’s Next (horrible - fragmented, the plot was not cohesive at all - one of his worst, IMHO), Milan Kundera’s Laughable Loves (darkly funny), YiYun Li’s A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (sometimes surprising, sometimes alarming), Ha Jin’s Under the Red Flag (made me cry) and am now in the middle of Waiting, which is beginning to get real interesting.

So this is what people did in the old days when they had no electricity!

Alas, I am a power addict. Thanks to Lokes’ office, we had our hot showers and every evening, he would bring home a fully charged notebook so we could watch some movies, next to a hot cup of hot and sour soup from Grand Peking. I love you, baby. So far, we’ve gone over Superman Returns (I’ve definitely outgrown my favourite superhero, darn it), United 93 (absolutely horrid because it’s so damn real, couldn’t stop crying throughout), Funny Face (Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire do NOT look good together) and while doing laundry at Karli’s, we watched Pride and Prejudice (Kiera Knightley and Matthew Macfayden look perfect together).

Word has it that we will have to endure a few more powerless days. We cleaned out the freezer yesterday and had to throw out vast quantities of meat, yogurt and other must-keep-frozen things. The house is in a fine mess but you know what? We are a-okay. Thanks to Lokes’ work, and some really good friends who have offered us so much help, we’re just fine.

But enough about me. How’s things with you?