Electricity...

To quote one of my favorite 80's groups, "You don't know what you got, 'til it's gone."

I'll never take electricity for granted again. The last 7 days have been compelling. Sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes downright awful. Today, though, I want to concentrate on being thankful. Our power came back on about 7pm Central last night.

I'm thankful to God that he created electricity and the men and women who were smart enough to harness it. Thank you to the Greeks (Thales of Miletus) for discovering static electricity, thank you to Benjamin Franklin, thank you Charles-Augustin Coulomb, thank you Alessandro Volta, thank you Michael Faraday, thank you Joseph Swan, thank you James Watt, Andre Ampere and George Ohm, thank you Nikola Tesla, George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison. Those are the big guys in the world of electricity.

Now for the people who are no less important - thank you sincerely to the men and women who worked day and night to get electricity back to our town and then our neighborhood.

Finally, as the last part of this post, I'm thankful to my family. I'm thankful for the help of my children when we had to bring wood in for our wood stove. Thank you for not complaining too much. I know it was tough this last week, but we did make some memories. We learned that we can occupy our time with things other than Xboxes, Nintendos and Computers. We learned that playing cards can be fun and learning new games can be fun as well! We learned that hot dogs roasted over the fire of a wood stove taste waaaaay better than boiled hot dogs and that Pop Tarts are much better when warmed on top of the wood stove than when they are toasted in an electric toaster. We learned that S'mores are one of the yummiest foods you can make using a wood stove. We also learned how important it is to have deep and meaningful friendships and that sometimes, no matter how independent we want to be, that it's okay to rely on those friends.

I'm thankful to my partner for helping me to get through. You, my love, are the strong one. Thank you for your love and your strength.