Unplugged and Coping

Well, it's been an odd couple of days in the Stevens' household. Storms have been rolling through the Central Ohio area for the past five days, engendering much chaos. So far we've lost power twice (once for 20 hours), lost our phone line (still not fixed), and lost our favorite shade tree in the backyard. But the interesting thing was how I discovered all these quirky little habits centered around the use of electricity. Like, flipping on the light switch in a darkened room. Now I know that the power is off, that no light switch will work, but inevitably I'd go into a room and hit the light switch before I could stop myself. Nearly every other impulse (have to run the dishwasher, should turn on the TV, etc.) I was able to curb, but the light switch got me every time. It's like it was a reaction wired (no pun intended) straight into the limbic system. The other thing I noticed was how much noise all that eletrical equipment really makes. When the power finally came on (at midnight), the racket itself woke me up. And yet we ignore it 99 percent of the time! Amazing...