It Was The Longest 42 Minutes of My Life

I was in the process of tucking Emma and Riley in to bed when without warning, the entire house went pitch black.

Screams echoed throughout the bedroom. Both girls are completely petrified of the dark.

I scooped them up along with their pillows and the quilts my mom made for them and made my way downstairs, grabbing another frightened kid - who was in the process of getting into the shower and so was left in the total blackness of a windowless bathroom. My mom was downstairs with 2 other kids, and amid some pretty high level panicking, I determined that we had one flashlight that worked in the house.

Then the dilemma began. Should I take that flashlight out to the garage to locate some others, leaving the family virtually abandoned - in their minds - without a light, or go out to the garage in the dark and look for a light?

It was then that common sense prevailed and I remembered that I had my phone. Thank goodness I'd had the foresight to charge it during the afternoon. Why, if I hadn't done that, I might have been stranded out in the dark.

Of course, every single flashlight in the house was dead. Because it's WAY more important to play ghost than to leave a prepared flashlight for your family.

I laid the girls on the sofas with strict instruction that they were not to speak and went into the kitchen. There, by the light of a laptop, I chatted with my mom. I had checked outside and noticed that my entire neighborhood was black, and a quick inquiry on Twitter and Facebook quickly showed that a medium sized chunk of my city had either lost power or had a brown out.

The girls cried, my anxiety kid fretted and the night went on and on and on.

__________________________

I wrote this last week. Like I said yesterday, this happened TWICE more in the past week - and oddly enough, the power went out at church on Sunday. There was not as much panicking when we were at Mass, though - there are an AWFUL lot of windows there and it was the middle of the day. Plus, you know, it's way more embarrassing to freak out in public - so people don't do that.

A family member is a big believer in the End Times. He's purchased special candles for everyone in the family - 3 day candles. They are supposed to burn for the 3 days of darkness that are foretold to happen. (PLEASE - let's not discuss this. Everyone has their own beliefs. I do not want to debate the authenticity of this teaching of some of the mystics of the Church, pro OR con.) He gave us one of these candles this weekend, with a warning that the power going out had been a sign of future times without power. We were told to save it. Do not burn it until the sign had appeared. I put it in the front room and forgot about it.

When the power went out last night, AGAIN while I was putting the girls to bed, I realized that I'd forgotten to buy batteries. Again. Still. So I went looking for candles, only to realize that we really don't have candles. We have a couple of just regular religious candles, the kind that are in a tall glass and when you burn them, the wax climbs up the sides of the cup.  When I tried to light them, the wicks had broken off. No amount of digging around allowed me to light the dumb things. My husband called in the middle of this. "Hon, I cannot light one flippin' candle in this house. Not one." I talked for a minute more, just throwing out in the conversation,"I bet that the 3 day candle would light. It'd at least give the kids a candle to sleep by" - because I'd laid the girls on the sofa again - they knew the drill. He told me to go ahead and light it. Even though I told him I was going to get yelled at when the family member discovered I'd burned it against protocol - he told me to light it.

I did, feeling a faint sense of unease and shame.

And it BURNT OUT after 20 minutes. Right before the power came back on.

Because that's EXACTLY the way my life works.

Comments

[kyooty]

maybe it just gave you just what you needed?

[Kelly H]

This is the BEST POST EVER. LOL! Now your dilemma is... do you tell said family member that his/her "3 day candle" only lasted 20 minutes and he/she should probably go buy something else if they really need it to last 3 days??! But you then have to fess up that you burned yours when the sign was not there! Your poor thing... what an ordeal!

[Redneck Mommy]

I shouldn't have laughed. But I did. But I don't feel bad. My power was out all darn day today and my furnace died a sudden death as well. Which is handy since it's only -50 with the windchill. So awesome. It's always nice to know I'm not the only one who is never fully prepared for a crisis. *Note to self, buy candles. And not the 3 day candles that only burn for 20 minutes.*

[Headless Mom]

*snort* 20 minutes? That's a pretty short 3 days. I guess if that's how long the '3 day darkness' is, I guess you can live without a candle?

[Nicki]

I know it's wrong to laugh, but it is funny. Now that I have pretty much just spit in the face of the fates, I should probably go check and see if our one remaining flashlight has batteries.

[Megan]

I laughed too, about the 3 day candle that's supposed to save you from the End Times. (Which I've never heard of. Must be a Catholic thing.) I would totally have bought those if I saw them in the store. If I happen to have a working flashlight with fresh batteries in the house (unlikely), I usually can't find it when the power goes out.

We had some power outages in my area last Friday too. Guess it was the wind?

[Elizabeth]

I admit I giggled because I've been there, done that.

I discovered during Hurricane Ike that we didn't have a single working flashlight in the house. And of course, there isn't one to be found at that point.

I have since bought flashlights out the wazoo. They are stashed all over the house along with extra batteries and bulbs. I also bought some glowsticks to use as a nightlight for Charlie if need be.

We did, thankfully, have plenty of taper candles for some weird reason. I'm still scraping wax off the floors 2 years later. 3 weeks without power will go through lots of candles and batteries!

[Amie]

Too funny! Here is my power outage story. Several years ago I stopped by my parents house on July evening on my way home from late shift. Ther my father sat in the middle of the living room in total darkness and windows shut tight like a drum. I asked him what he was doing , his reply was waiting for my ,other to come home and fix it.

Did I mention he is retired form working 30 hrs with local power company?

[addy]

Ya know living in tornado alley we bought those flashlights that plug into the wall socket and illuminate if the power goes out. Still have 2? 3? of them in plugged in. Huh go figure...

[HolyMama!]

i've never heard of a 3 day candle! or a 20 minute candle....

but you made me wonder, since all of mine are the electric, wax warming, wickless sort that aren't really candles at all and would be virtually useless, even compared to a 20 minute candle!

[Paula Douglas]

Buy some oil lamps. We have them and they are perfect for when the power goes out.

[Erika]

Oh, wow. How freaky! You should get a break on your electric bill for all that mess. I don't know about the 3-day candle either (and I am Catholic) off to Google!

[Sharilyn]

What a rockin' scam that manufacturer has going!

[Catherine H.]

I would just like to point out that three days of darkness signalling the world's end is not a doctrine of the Catholic Church. You seem aware of this, but your use of the word "teaching" could be misleading to those less informed than yourself. If this three days phenomenon is contained in the works of some Catholic mystic (may I ask whose? I've never heard this before), that makes it merely a private revelation (if it's authentic) and not a public revelation, and therefore not a matter of required belief.