Where was Grammy When the Lights Went Out?

by Sweetie, intrepid protector of the family.

Good morning, friends.  
Well, life is never dull around Mischief and Mayhem Central.  Never!

Sunday mornings when Grammy needs to be at church for 9 AM she is up at 5. It takes the old girl a few hours to limber up the old joints and her first pickup is usually between 7 and 7:30.  Well, Saturday night Grammy was up around 2ish for whatever reason and suddenly there was a loud bang and everything went DARK... and SILENT.

The power was out.  Now that means a number of things.... Primarily … No lights! No heating! and No morning alarm! No trickling water fountains!  No humming refrigerator! and No quiet music to keep us calm through the night. Oh my.... and possibly NO COFFEE! Oh the horror of it all!

Most of these are not a problem and can be dealt with … but the alarm!.  To get Grammy up at 5 AM at least 3 alarms are mandatory.  The home phone alarm was out, for sure...no power, no phone.  Then there is the iPad alarm... fortunately multiple alarms can be set on it... just had to hope it was charged enough to last the night.   Then the Android phone... which was an issue... it had been put on the charger for the night and would have gone off... but with the charger out of commission there was no guarantee that it wouldn't be dead by morning.  What a dilemma.

The lack of lights was not an issue.  It seems that the power outage was limited to our condo complex so lights from other buildings, street lamps and such were enough for Grammy to get her bearings. 

The problem it turned out was US - Mouse and Whiskers are dark, the backs of the boys and yours truly are dark too  - and Grammy couldn't see us scooting around the floor and had to step carefully.... because of course, most of us had to stick close to Grammy to protect her and were 'underfoot'.  AND I was on duty patrolling the perimeter to be sure nothing attempted to breach the ramparts.   To add to the chaos Rondo was howling like a banshee!  Yes, he does not like the dark.

Thankfully, Grammy has three flashlights strategically placed for emergencies so she shuffled across the floor, brushing against furry bodies but not stepping on toes to the closet and then 'the light came on!' No, not the power, just the flashlight.  But it was enough to see us and dance around us and enough to stop Rondo's howling.

So, light taken care of, Grammy's next concern... would there be hot water for a shower in the morning?  No hot water, no shower!  No shower, well, we wouldn't like to think about those consequences.  No siree. Gross, to say the least.

With that, and just to be sure, Grammy grabbed a second flashlight and tucked it into the drawer beside the bed and then crawled in.  Of course, no power, no heat...so she called us all to snuggle on the bed to keep each other warm... and for the rest of the night was in semi-alert mode listening for the power to come on, or if not the power... for the 5 AM alarm... so not much restorative sleep.  

At 5 AM all was still silent except the iPAD alarm... and Grammy was wide awake.  Dilemma!  Should she get up? Brrr, no heat all night and it was mighty chilly.  Okay for us in our furry coats but the old girl... that was an issue... and no way could she shower under such conditions... so we all opted to stay in bed...including Grammy... and Alarm 2 went off at 5:10, and a third at 5:15.  Still no light, no heat and no coffee.  No sense climbing out from under that toasty duvet but the wait was unbearable.  The old girl needed time to get ready unlike us who keep ourselves perpetually groomed for whatever.

Finally, 6:15 we heard another big CLUNK, some whirring and the nightlights and the refrigerator all came on... the power was back!   Grammy made a mad dash to the kitchen and put on her brew, fed us then got ready to go out the door... though she was a little stiff in the joints.   Like I said... never a dull moment.

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Now, for those of you who's email addresses we have, we sent out the e-cards this morning... and it turns out for some there is a problem.  The cards use Flash and of course, it doesn't work on iPads or Apple devices and now seems to have a security issue in Windows 10 so unfortunately you cannot see the card and the photos.

BUT we have a solution for the card itself.  Send an email to whiskersandmouse@gmail.com and Grammy will take a screen shot of the card with one photo and send it back to you.  
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We apologize for this.  The good news is that Jacquie Lawson is working on converting all older versions of cards to the new format so hopefully in future this won't be an issue.  Meantime, Grammy is happy to do this.

Well, that's it for this week, friends.  Stay tuned for our Christmas post next Monday and have a wonderful week.  We love you!  Sweetie, intrepid defender of the home turf.

Comments are always welcomed, friends... especially the ones with humour, mischief and fun..
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