Pant

Unbelievable.

Monday - Friday last week, we ate creative meals that involved ingredients from the back of the pantry, like the surprisingly spicy Italian vegetable soup I made on Thursday night. There was no meat to be found in our house. Before my book club meeting on Monday, I'd managed to pick up some eggs and milk, but hadn't had time to make a grocery list and do a full shopping trip to replace the frig and freezer supplies that we'd had to pitch after our last power outage.

Right now is the busiest time of the year at work for Paul and for me.

On Saturday afternoon, Paul had been at work all day, and Ellie and I finally made it to the grocery store. In the car on the way home, I noticed that the sky was looking pretty dark to the north. It was so, so hot, I looked forward to rain. It was 100 degrees, with humidity about equal that. (And so it remains.)

We arrived home, put away the groceries, and made up the guest bed for Grandma. Then the skies opened and the deluge came. I looked out the window and saw Grandma's truck in the driveway.

I told Ellie that Grandma was here - "Gamah! Gamah!" and opened the front door for her so that she could dash out in the rain and get soaked while she waited for her beloved Grandma to open the door and rescue her.

We'd no sooner gotten Grandma inside than the lightening began. And the power went out. Again.

My lasagna, garlic cheese bread, and sweet corn-on-the-cob celebratory dinner for the completion of Paul's project at work became a steamy spaghetti and corn dinner. (I can cook on my gas stove in the dark, but the oven is controlled digitally.)

Then I sent Paul back out for ice for the frig and freezer. We went to a blessedly cool movie.

I spent most of the night lying in bed awake, sweating and uncomfortable, thinking about all the spoiling food.

This morning, I took the food over to our friends' house, where I discovered that the frozen chicken had managed to thaw completely overnight, even in the freezer with all the other frozen goods and ice. Not good.

And I was very, very irritable. Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one in a mood.

Church was wonderfully air conditioned. The all-church picnic in the park afterwards was not. Then Paul and I both had work to do, so we headed to our offices. Since my office was nicely air-conditioned and deserted, Mom and Ellie came with me.

By the time I'd finished my work, our power was, thankfully, back on.

I should be grateful, and I am.

But I'm also pissed. I mean, it was a thunderstorm. Nothing out of the ordinary. And it was the third time in less than a year that we've had a power-outage we can measure in units of Days, rather than Minutes. (We get lots and lots of several-second outages all year long.)

I often rant about cell phone companies, and how people pay such an exorbitant amount every month for the privilege of using a mobile phone that sounds tinny and goes in and out of range with no warning. We don't accept that kind of service with our other utilities, I rage.

But it seems that we do. More than 100 years after the invention of power lines, Ameren still can't keep electricity flowing to my home, in an accessible, urban area, when it rains. Unacceptable.