Blackout Barbecue
Saturday began much like any other Saturday. After breakfast, I left the kids in the talented care of She Who Puts Up With Me, and went to the grocery store. Once there, I discovered--amazingly enough!--bratwurst, chicken drumsticks, hot dogs, buns, and all sorts of other barbecue goodies were featured sale items. It was almost as though they expected people to fire up the grill on Memorial Day weekend.
The sale had its intended effect. Ignoring the fact that it has been raining almost nonstop since quitting time on Friday (we've gotten about 2.5" of rain at our house since Friday evening, with more expected before the long weekend is over), I succumbed to the siren call and loaded up on stuff to grill.
After all, I'm the guy who makes a point of grilling on the coldest night of the year each year. I wasn't going to let a little bit of rain keep me from searing raw meat over a charcoal flame.
When I got home, I put on my brightest smile. "I have a great idea," I said to She Who Puts Up With Me, "let's invite some friends and family over for a cookout tonight!"
Now you know why I call her "She Who Puts Up With Me."
She agreed--perhaps because She knows that when I get a great idea, there's no point in trying to stop me. So, I started calling people and inviting them over for around 5 or 6 PM.
Then, about 3 PM, the power went out.
When it didn't come back on within an hour, I called Xcel Energy (this is the company which used to be called "Northern States Power," until some consultant told them that actually generating and transmitting electricity was passe. They sexed up their name, and promptly went almost-bankrupt) and was told that the power would be back on around 6:30.
No problem, I thought. There's still plenty of sunlight at 6:30, and the grill requires nothing but charcoal.
People came. We had an even dozen (including ourselves), and went through a rack of ribs, a dozen brats, several chicken drumsticks, and an entire package of hot dogs (the latter being consumed almost entirely by the twins, who would loudly demand another hot dog while the last one was still traveling down their esophagus).
Bedtime for the kids came. Still no power, so we lit a few candles in bathrooms and put the kids to bed. With sunset as late as it is in Minnesota during the summer, bedtime is normally a sunlight affair anyway. My mom had brought over a frozen apple crisp, but with an electric oven, we had no way to reheat it....until we put it on the charcoal grill. In half the time it would normally take in the oven, it was steaming and ready to go.
As the shadows deepened, we lit more and more candles. Around 8:30, I called Xcel again, and was told that the power was now expected back around 10. We lit still more candles, and the neighborhood plunged into darkness and silence. It would have been silence, anyway, except for the droning of our neighbor's Y2K-surplus generator which had been running since 4 PM.
The conversation ranged from politics to Renfest (She is part of a choir which performs at the Renaissance Festival), and grew more animated with each new candle I lit. I think there is something about the darkness and the dim flickering flame-light which makes people more social. A genetic memory of the not-so-ancient past when the night was to be feared, and the light meant safety, comfort, and warmth.
We sent everyone home a little before 10, still without electricity, so She and I could keep our sleep cycles in-line with the kids'. The power finally came back on around midnight, bringing us back to the modern world of bright lights. Of course, that required a bleary-eyed trip through the house to blow out all the candles and turn off all the light switches which had been left on.