Cooking by Candle Light

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I woke up from my nap this afternoon just in time to watch a savage storm blow by our house. I'd been half listening to the distant rumbles all afternoon but there was an oddness to the sounds as the storm moved closer that woke me completely. As I listened to the thunder and rain and watched the lightening flash and the wind bend the trees (half hoping that the tree that shadows our driveway would fall over) I thought a few things. I thought that what I was seeing looked a lot like the prelude to a tornado. I found out later that the storm had spawned an F3 tornado in Kentucky that jumped the Ohio River into Indiana. I think we got real lucky with that one.

At the time I wondered how quickly I could get every one to the basement if I spotted a funnel cloud. As I looked at the way the trees were bending and bowing in the wind, I thought we would lose power. About 5 minutes after that I realised that the lamp beside the bed had gone out. So I got out of bed and started lighting candles and our one oil lamp.

So I had the pleasure of making dinner by candle light. Luckily there was some food left over from lunch at church today and a friend had brought over a roasted chicken. All I had to do was make some rice to go with it all. I wish I could say it was novel cooking by candle light but I've done it several times before. Every time we lose power (which happens at least once every summer) I think maybe we should get a back up generator but we haven't gotten around to it yet. If we lived somewhere that was prone to catastrophic natural disasters (tornadoes, hurricanes, and the like) or if we lived in the boondocks we'd definitely have one.

The power eventually came back on but I left the lights off a little while. It was rather warm and cozy.

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