I got a day off today.

Well, not totally off. But most of it. Problem is, I've got wayyyy too much work coming due to take any time off.

But at 11:37 our power went off.

And didn't come back on until after eight o'clock this evening.

Seems the driver of this truck,

delivering a huge piece of equipment for the refinery, forgot about the sections of pipe that were sticking up from the huge contraption.

And we lost, not one, not two, but four of the town's powerlines.

The heelers and I discovered this was the cause of the blackout when, a little before noon we headed to the post office. 'Cause, hey, all the office work is on computers these days, and computers don't run without electricity.

Might as well take a walk.

Had I know it was going to take nine hours to restore power, I'd've loaded up the heelers into the truck and gone somewhere.

Anywhere.

Like I discussed with our neighbors, I obviously don't know anything about electrical power. To me, it appears you cut off the power source, put the four power cables back up, and then turn power back on. Three hours, max. Right?

Around five o'clock the sisters and I headed to main street again, to check on progress. And visited with another town resident, since the police chief had a whole mob of citizens around his car in the intersection, presumably all asking the same questions.

And one of the town council members came strolling up, having obviously just returned to town after a day at work.

"Do you two know why we don't have any electricity?" she asks.

"Yeah," my partner in crime answered.

"It's all gone. We used it all up."

There might be some more shipped in tomorrow, I added.

In disgust, she announces "I should have known better than to ask you two>!"

And promptly stomps out into the street to join the mob around the Chief. She comes back shortly and advises he says it'll be at least two more hours before power is restored.

It was closer to three.

But the good news about all this is... after informing the wife she might want to bring dinner home from the city, she instead contacted eldest son. And he and his girlfriend brought over a home cooked barbequed chicken dinner for the four of us.

Fun.

And good.

And yeah, I tried to get the wife to use Nora's glasses. But no, she was too scared.

'Course, with two heelers trying to alternately herd or kill a cute little corgi in the house, maybe she was just being wise.