Drama

I went out for my walk at about 8:30 last night as usual. I had walked to the end of our block, then turned to walk north. I got about halfway down the block when I heard a noise that sounded like an explosion. I turned around, and it looked for a moment like someone had set off a big firework--silver sparks shooting off in all directions. I immediately realized, though, that they were coming from an electrical transformer on top of a utility pole, and as I watched, the pole actually broke, and the top third fell over, to hang suspended in the wires.

I pulled out my cell phone and called Bob to tell him, and to ask if he'd heard it. He said he hadn't heard it, but that the electricity had gone off for a minute before coming back on. He said, "Do you want me to come get you?" I laughed and said no, I thought I would be fine. The pole didn't fall on me!

So I continued my walk, in the completely oppressive heat--there was a nice breeze at one point, which I had to attribute to my guardian angel not wanting me to die of heatstroke--and by the time I started walking back down the block where the explosion happened, there was a police car sitting in the street with flashers going, blocking the street. As I got closer, an electric company truck drove up and a workman got out, and he and the policeman stood there together, scratching their heads.

I was so grateful that we hadn't lost power, it was so nice to be able to sit down and cool off, although I didn't actually sit down very long before I went upstairs and took a cool shower.

And I got new shoes! I didn't really know where to go. I thought I should probably go to Foot Locker or someplace like that, but I wasn't especially thrilled about going to the mall. The I remembered that Kohl's had athletic shoes the last time I was there, so I thought I'd check there before I went somewhere else. They had quite a few; some Sketchers that were pretty cool, and several other brands, but both the Sketchers and the Nikes had really stiff back collars, which, while I'm sure they're good for support, I didn't like much.

I ended up buying a pair of New Balance that I like a lot. They're like this:

except that where these are gold, mine are green.

My happiness that we didn't lose power was short-lived. I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and thought, man, it's dark in here. Normally I can see the glow of a nightlight in the hall, coming from Bob's bathroom, which I didn't see, but sometimes he unplugs it to plug in something else, so I looked over toward the bathroom off the bedroom, and it was dark, too, and I neverunplug the light in my bathroom, plus, apropos of nothing, it's blue.

So I looked at the digital clock on my bedside table, and it was dark, too.

I keep a penlight flashlight by my bed, so I got that and took it to the bathroom with me, and while I was in there I checked the battery-operated clock on the wall, which is how I knew it was 3:00 a.m.

I went back to bed and fretted about how hot it was going to get, and whether I'd be able to get the garage door up to get my car out in the morning, and whether I should open the refrigerator to get out food for my lunch, or whether it would be more prudent not to open it, to keep the cold air in.

And then I remembered that I'd left my cell phone in the charger downstairs, and what if the power came back on and we got a power surge and it blew it out? So I went downstairs, still using the flashlight, and unplugged the phone and carried it back upstairs with me.

And then I got back up and went to the linen closet and got out my travel toiletry kit and dug around in there until I found my travel alarm clock, which I set and placed next to the bed, and finally got back to sleep. The electricity came back on at about the same time as the alarm went off, thank goodness. When I went in the bathroom, I noticed that the electric clock with hands had stopped at 3:00 a.m., so it made me wonder if something that woken me up the first time. Something other than having to go to the bathroom, I mean.