That's the night that the lights went out in Stoneland

We have always had great luck with our electricity in this house. Two years ago, when the entire city went dark during a blackout, ours was off for a grand total of twenty minutes. At work, the lights were out so long, we ended up closing. Parts of the town were out for five or six hours. Every other time we've lost power, our little part of the neighborhood is the pocket that comes back on first. I chock it up to the fact that we have two ambulance bays and a fire department in that little pocket of electricity. They always come back up first, while the people behind us stay dark for much longer.

While I was at Ikea on Wednesday, as we were browsing through the candle area, I almost picked up a large packet of candles for our emergency box. My mom has recently been checking the temperatures of the Gulf of Mexico on a daily basis. Because she's near the coast, it's in her newspaper along with the weather. About a week ago, they also ran an article about how the gulf is warmer than it has been this early in over a decade. This puts her in a state usually reserved for small poultry and she emails out her Hurricane prep lists. So, I stood there in Ikea staring at a giant box of cheap candles and thought about my mom. Then I thought about on of Tee's best friends, who is as far inland as we are, who lost power for over three weeks after Hurricane Rita. Then, I thought about No Buy, ran over my Ikea list, which did not contain candles, and moved on.

So, of course, we lost power for over five hours last night. Not the entire city, not even our entire little section that usually comes on first. It was just our side of the street. I'm not sure what happened, but as DH cruised the neighborhood, there were a bunch of utility trucks and downed lines.

The bonus side of this resulted in dinner out. Unplanned and unbudgeted, but good anyway. It was a great excuse. DH did a great job making sure that they did not open the refrigerator, which I think helped keep everything okay. I was a little worried about the amount of food in the freezer but it's all good as far as I can tell. I'll use caution when thawing, but the milk was just fine this morning so I feel we are okay. But, I think about the 72 hour rule. You know, the one that says you should be prepared to go 3 days on your own emergency supplies. I'll have to go through my box soon and make a few lists. But, I wish I had picked up two packs of those candles on Wednesday.

At the bookstore:
We are in the middle of finals, so we have boneless college students everywhere, draped in aisles, under tables, sitting at tables full of merchandise...
Do you have a strategy for getting a place to sit?