There I was, last night, just before 2200. Happily stitching away on the rather large cross stitch that inhabits my floor frame and chatting with Jill, who is doing much the same while in her home on the eastern Australian coast. And, suddenly, as noted above – I am sitting in the dark. It is quiet. No motors anywhere. No signs of life. No computer, no wifi, no FaceTime.

Looking out the window – our entire neighborhood is dark. Ok, it is not our circuit breaker. The dark extends almost the entire way to the bay with only an occasional gleam of headlights as cars make their way along without the benefit of street lights or operational signals.

Over the next few minutes, I can hear the occasional generator starting up, breaking the peace and quiet. But it is dark. My phone is at 35%. Using it as a flashlight to head to bed will take the charge down further. George checks the PG&E website – yes, they know the power is out. These leaves me wondering if another squirrel has been crisped, since that was the origin of a previous transformer failure.

Somewhere after midnight the power comes back on. No, I wasn’t still awake. But the lights came on….