(don't) panic!

It's 5am and I'm minding my own business, clicking away at a game on Facebook.  It's dark outside.  Periodically I'm making an attempt at walking puppies. The weather is mild.  A bit warm for still-dark-morning, but not overly humid.  No thunder or lightning.  No rain.  No wind.

I mention the weather because suddenly...
...the room goes DARK!

30 seconds of pitch black.  Computer: off.  Kitchen light: off.  Fan: off.  Fridge: off.  Absolute silence reigns.

And then it's light again.  Computer starts to reboot.

And I think:  "I should get a candle ready.  Just in case."

Ah, there's the beautiful candle lamp on the kitchen counter (because it hasn't found a home yet)  I'll just move it to Peter's desk and light the candle.  Just in case.

So I go over to the counter and move the lamp.  I go back to the counter and look for a lighter.  Or matches.  Nothing.

I check the tool drawer.  Because who doesn't put a box of matches or a couple of lighters in their tool drawer?  Nothing.

For good measure, I check the hot-pad drawer.  Lots of birthday candles.  No matches.  No lighter.  Found the beaters for a mixer we no longer own.  But no incendiary devices.

What the heck, I'll check the other drawers.  Cooking tools: Nothing.  Silverware: Nothing.

I'm in a bit of a panic now.

There's nothing on the shelf in the living room because we've just redone the living room.

There's nothing on my altar because, well, I'm a slacker and don't have the altar back up completely yet.  Besides, I don't keep matches or a lighter on the altar, anyway.

How can I be living in a Pagan household and NOT have anything handy to light a fire?

Bathroom.  There are votive candles in the bathroom.  Surely there are matches.  I rummage.  I search.  None.

Finally, on a shelf just above my eye level, I find a lighter.

And I remember a late-night conversation with Peter.  Several weeks ago I wanted a candlelit bath to soothe my headache and help me sleep.  The lighter was his solution to the "no matches in the matchbox" problem.

It's ok.  I have a lighter and a candle and if the power goes out again, I'll have light.

Let me just light the candle.  Just in case.

Click.  Nothing.

Click.

Nothing.

Shake.  Liquid noises.  Ok. 

Click.

Nothing.

Notice that the clicking part of this particular lighter is split in two.  What?  Hmm.

Click the tiny edge portion.

FIRE! 

And in my exuberance at figuring out what is apparently a child-safe lighter, I manage to burn myself with said lighter.

But the candle is lit.  Just in case.

Just in case another freaking squirrel farts on the power line causing a blackout of half the grid serviced by our local co-op.

(That's the only thing I can imagine that may have caused the earlier interruption in service.)