Power cuts

Yesterday evening we had the joy of a power cut: at about 7:30 there was an acrid smell in the air -- burning tyres? oil? not clear -- followed shortly after by all the lights going out. As I was in the middle of a phone call at the time, and our phones are all portable ones, requiring power, this was a pain.
Worse, the temperature outside was still in the high 80's, and our air conditioning is powered by, you guessed it, electricity. LOML and I took turns reading to Boo and Skibo while there was light enough in their bedroom to do so: then I wandered down the street to find out that a power cable strung across the street had "burned out" --- a scary thought. Fortunately no-one was hurt and the power company was already there fixing the cable. Less than two hours later, just as the children were drifting off to sleep, the power came back on. And of course, the light in their room was switched on, and bingo, they were awake again. Grrrr. Another ten or so minutes later I got them calmed back down --- Skibo went to sleep, and a while later, without being too difficult, so did Boo.

N.