By MARK CONSTANCE
Like many people across the region. We lost power for a bit yesterday.
But it didn’t go out all at once. It seemed like we had a brownout for about an hour. When the lights have an eerie glow and don’t fully turn on?
Regardless, we went out for dinner to a place that had power. And when we got home, everything was dark.
Let me tell you: At any given time, I have six flashlights, 32 candles and a handful of outside LED yard lights just for times like this. But Noooooo!
I hunted high and low for flashlights I used just last week while tinkering on the Jeep.
I was able to scrounge up three tea light candles from a pre-COVID flannel party, and there was one functioning yard light. The rest I left at the acreage in Hale last month.
I will fess up and say I kind of contributed to this mess. I do have a generator, but somehow it hadn’t found its way to the shop as I had
planned.
Regardless, there was a weird feeling to the whole search. I was able to find a flashlight right away, just not the one I was looking for. It’s a
weirdly shaped Husky that doesn’t quite fit anywhere. It’s too big for a drawer but too small to dedicate any counterspace.
It seems like it has been around forever. It kind of has I suppose.
It was my mom’s flashlight. She passed earlier this year. The light sat next to her recliner. She always kept one close because of the regular power outages they experienced during the Florida hurricane season.
As we were going through her personal affects, my sisters told me to take it, I said, “No. I have plenty of flashlights.”
I took it anyway. You can never have too many flashlights.
When it came to crunchtime, it was her light that appeared when I needed one. Even in her passing, she found a way to use an old flashlight to help me find my way through the darkness. Who would have thought …
– Love