Church in the Dark--Sunday's Inconvenience

Saturday we got more snow.  Seriously.  I'm all snowed out this year.  I don't know if it was the snow or because of daylight saving time or maybe that it was the morning after closing night of the community theater play or maybe none of the above were to blame, but when sweet husband's phone alarm went off Sunday morning and I looked at my clock, nothing looked back at me.  The power was out.  On a Sunday morning.  I know what you're thinking--a day off!  But this was no ordinary Sunday.  For my LDS readers, this was Stake Conference Sunday.  For everyone else, twice a year a group of 4-5 LDS congregations near each other meets together and hears from the area leadership.  Yesterday was that day, and we were expecting the stake leadership to go through some changes.  It also means there are extra meetings.  Hubby had to be to the 7-9 am meeting and I had to be at the 9:15-10:15 meeting, then the whole family at the 11:00 meeting.  He looked down the road and there were street lights on, so he thought maybe the church had power, so he showered in the dark and got himself to his meeting.  Well, the church didn't have power.  It was dark.  They lit up the pulpit with battery powered lanterns as well as they could and people used flashlights to read the music.  It was also cold.  No reason to take your coat off when you got there.

Meanwhile, I was back home, getting out of bed and getting ready.  Thankfully, it wasn't dark anymore.  I laughed at our situation.  Generally when I've thought of an "emergency" I wasn't thinking I'd be trying to look nice and go to church.  I washed my hair real quick, knowing I wouldn't have a blow dryer and then set to work heating water for hot cocoa and getting some oatmeal cooked for the kids.  Our stove is gas, so it still works when the power is out, we just have to use a match to get it lit.  That saved me having to go out to the shed and get the camp stove.  By the time I was dressed and ready to go, my hair had partly dried, so I was able to use the propane curling iron (I've been corrected by my mom--it's butane, not propane) on some of it.  It's not the best, but works in a pinch.

The "emergency" was minor--more inconvenient than life stopping.  I'd just never considered being too concerned about how I looked in any kind of emergency. :)
After his meeting, sweet husband came home and picked me up and took me to my meeting.  The power was still out, so we held that meeting in the dark also.  Church in the dark is quite a memorable experience.  I sat next to a friend of mine (our scout leader) and shared my flashlight.  Yeah, you know the scout motto, "be prepared".  He laughed and reminded me that this is the second time I've saved him with my flashlight--the first time his car battery had died at night and he didn't have jumper cables or a light and I had both, so we got him fixed up and back on the road.  And he's the scout leader.  Hilarious.

Anyway, after that meeting there was a little break before the general meeting started, so I sat down and saved a space for my family.  This is usually quite a large meeting.  We actually still had quite a good group considering the circumstances, although I heard of at least one who couldn't get out of their garage because the automatic doors wouldn't open.  Others likely assumed the meeting was canceled for the power outage or just chose to stay home.  The ushers used flashlights to show people to their seats.  Families had to find each other in the dark.  Interesting.  My family showed up with flashlights, headlamps, etc. plus blankets for the kids and a friend caught them on their way in and told them where I was sitting.

Then, just as the meeting was going to start, the power came back on and we could all see again.  Not that any of us ladies that got ready for church without power wanted to be seen much, but I really don't think people were judging. ;)