Hot Child in the City

Electricity is, without a doubt, one of those modern conveniences that don't seem so important until they're gone. I'm lucky; in the ten years I've lived in this house, my power has gone out only twice, one of those times being today. In previous places I lived in Jacksonville, it wasn't unusual for the power to go out once a week for a few hours. This is better. But -- it's about ninety degrees and sunny here today, nice if you're a vacationing beachgoer, bad if you're trapped inside working and made worse by no electricity. So that meant I couldn't work, which could have meant a fun time at the pool or beach, but I was also (and still am) experiencing a bit of tummy trouble. I'm not entirely sure that I completely recovered from my food poisoning issue in Mexico. I am sure that a house with no AC, where the temperature has risen into the eighties inside, is not the best place to be with such a condition.

The dogs -- I have two of them here; my youngest son went home this morning with his dog -- were barking and howling because there was more activity out front than usual. Everyone was emerging from their homes, hoping for at least a little breeze. I've been trying to keep my house closed up as much as I can so the humidity doesn't add to my water damage problem. The first few hours weren't too bad; I went through some mail and cleaned up a bit. But by the third hour, the house was getting really hot and the dogs would not shut up. My bedroom tends to stay cooler than the rest of the house, so around 2:00 I went in to lie down. The next thing I knew, my phone was ringing and it was 4:00. The power was still out, but apparently I'd managed to get some rest and at the same time escape from my dog and electricity issues.

Half an hour into my call with my eldest son, the AC popped on. Praise the Lord -- my power was back! I told him he's my lucky charm (and he should have called hours earlier). I'm so happy now I could do a little dance, but I'll hold off on that. I haven't eaten all day, I don't want to go out, and I'm not sure how cold my refrigerator stayed throughout the outage. I'll eat just toast if I'm unsure of the food safety issue. But I'll eat it with cold air blowing right on me.