Blackout

I copied Google's search page idea today. For one hour, we're asked to "turn out the lights" from 8 to 9 p.m., your local time. This is supposedly to help increase awareness for conservation of energy consumption. I figure if G.W. would just resign, we'd save a lot of hot air from floating into the Ozone layer. haha. Wish it was that easy.

We had a local power blackout Thursday night for about two hours. It's always interesting to watch how the children react. It's always the same. First, they panic. Then, they get busy helping to gather flashlights, candles, etc., and think about what they can do without electricity. My youngest son is an electronics hound. Being very autistic, having his routines disrupted can cause full-blown meltdowns of nuclear proportion. Since he now has a few power outages under his little belt, he's much more able to cope with the sudden silencing of his beloved CDs, DVDs, TV, tape recorders, etc., and on infinitum.

Now when blackouts happen, he goes about finding all devices that can run on batteries and uses them. It's cute. In a way. The longest outage we had to deal with was early last fall, when it went out for about 22 hours. It was truly miserable. Each time it happens, we are acutely reminded of our dependence upon things electric.

Anyway, so today ... while doing the things we usually do on Saturdays, we will observe the one hour of "lights out." We'll do what we usually do - read and play board games by candlelight and flashlight. If the sky is clear and the moon bright, we'll spend some time looking at the stars. It's a reminder to hope for the best, be prepared for the worst, and look to ourselves for solutions. Hope your weekend is special in some way for each of you!

xo