Saved From a Life of Crime by Mississippi Power

This morning I saw a beautiful sight...the power company setting a new pole in my neighborhood.  I threw on my sensible Birkenstocks and headed down the hill just as fast as my chubby legs would carry me, (never mind that I still had on pajamas, by this time I was past caring what I looked like--you try putting on makeup by flashlight and see if your lipstick doesn't wind up looking like something out of Sunset Boulevard) and all but kissed some young man from Mississippi Power who'd come to save me from being sent to Julia Tutwiler.  I had been just this close to shooting out our neighbor's generator (with my imaginary gun) because they had power for the TV and microwave and I didn't.  I have my priorities and electricity is high on the list.  Don't get me wrong, I know that I have been extremely blessed.  God is so good and I could never thank Him enough for the blessings that He has given me.  Too many times we forget to thank Him for the simple things like electricity and if you've been without it for a couple of days He'll bring you right back on track with what you ought to be thanking Him for!

Our power was off for two long days almost to the minute and I think if I'd had to walk around with a flashlight one more night I think I'd have thrown my "Little House on the Prairie" books straight through our still-blank TV (the power may be on but you know the cable company hasn't gotten with the program yet.)  Camping is not a favorite hobby of mine nor is anything that involves flashlights or porta potties.  A lack of electricity makes me claustrophobic, like I've moved to Laura Ingalls Wilder-ville.  I can feel a panic attack wanting to start churning up my diaphragm every time I watch LHOTP and snow starts falling thicker than Eaglebrand and Halfpint is whining because she can't walk that 5 miles to school  (it can't be up hill both ways because they lived on the prairie for pete's sake and the prairie doesn't have any hills.)  I could not have been Ma Ingalls; I'd have killed Charles or Mr Edwards or Mr Olson or anybody else who'd driven up with a wagon full of beef jerky and a sack of meal telling me to throw another log on the fire, that it was time to start dinner.  It's a good thing that God didn't leave it up to the likes of me to populate the United States because I'd have never left "back East" where people had neighbors and stores and gas lights and half-off sales.

I know there will be times ahead when the power will go off again and I'll get just as jumpy.  But we're going to invest in a generator.  I think I've convinced Larry that the expense would be well worth it when you compare what it would cost in gas these days to drive to Wetumpka on visitation weekends (the home of Julia Tutwiler Women's Prison for those that didn't already know) versus buying a generator that will run a television and a microwave.  It's really his civic duty to keep a potential criminal off the streets!