Power outage gives time to do new things

“When the Lights Go Down in the City” is the title of a Journey song that could have been the village of Plover’s theme song on Sunday. Three times the lights went down, as electrical storms knocked power out in parts of the village between the wee hours of the morning and 5 p.m.
The first time I was sleeping, so I didn’t notice that it even occurred. The second time, around 12:30 p.m., I was at the movie theater watching “Get Smart,” but my wife, Jenny, was at home. Since she couldn’t complete the household stuff she was working on, she took a nap as our son, Braden, was sleeping.
The third time, in the midst of a storm at 5 p.m., occurred while I was at home, shortly before we were about to prepare a salmon dinner I was looking forward to eating.
Since the storm ended quickly, we assumed power would return shortly. After an hour of waiting for it to do so, Jenny called the power company and asked when we could expect it to return. She was told the storm took down several power lines and started a fire that destroyed several other ones, so power would be out to probably 10 p.m.
This meant my salmon dinner would have to wait. It also meant we had to get out of our house, since sitting around twiddling our thumbs while waiting for power to return would have numbed our minds.
We could have used the time to read, something we both enjoy doing, but Braden isn’t as patient and would have demanded we play with him. We don’t mind playing with him, but several hours of doing so is way too exhausting.
We thought about taking a walk, but the clouds appeared threatening. I knew if we chose to do this, it would have rained again. I also knew that if we didn’t choose to take a walk, the rain would never come. I think this is called Murphy’s Law, but it really should be called Scott’s Law, as it always seems to affect me.
We needed to eat, so we decided to take a drive and find a restaurant we’ve never tried. We settled on a Chinese restaurant, which all three of us found to be really good. Braden, not one who likes to try new foods, gobbled up his sesame chicken like it was ice cream.
To our amazement when we returned home around 8 p.m., the power was back. Unfortunately, this didn’t allow me time to implement the top 10 things I was going to do between 8 and 10 p.m. if the power would have remained out. They included:
10) Become a singer/songwriter and learn how to play acoustic guitar, even though the world is not ready for me to unleash my amazing musical talents.
9) Perfect my Yoda impersonation, even though the world is full of Yoda impersonators.
8) Write a sequel to the great “Karate Kid III,” even though one technically exists with “The Next Karate Kid.” But that’s a movie I refuse to see as Ralph Macchio was replaced by Hilary Swank.
7) Paint my masterpiece, even though I have no artistic abilities. I have low standards, though, so it wouldn’t have to be good to qualify as my masterpiece.
6) Join Hair Club for Men, even though I’m probably already a life-time member as I haven’t had much hair for the past 10 years.
5) Bulk up like the Incredible Hulk, even though I don’t have the scientific know-how to use gamma rays to do so. Then again, I could ask Barry Bonds or a number of other sports athletes how they became Hulk-like.
4) Catch that monster bass that always eludes me, even though it always manages to escape every time I’m about to land it, as I tell others when talking about my fishing expeditions.
3) Write to all politicians and tell them they are doing a fine job, even though I’m sure that’s the only correspondence they ever get.
2) Journey to the center of the Earth, even though I don’t have a shovel. It just seems like a cool place to go.
1) Improve my golf game, even though Tiger would be jealous of it. Not everyone can hit triple digits in nine holes. His measly low scores should be nothing to brag about.
I guess I’ll have to wait until the next power outage before I can do these things.