Last night, as I was watching the freezing rain come down and knowing that I wouldn't go into work today, I decided to watch Ed Norton on Letterman, and around 12:15 my power went out. It had flickered a few times before that, so I had a feeling it was going to happen, but I still blurted out a bunch of obscenities. I lit a few candles, then blew them out when I couldn't really do anything but go to sleep. I piled a couple of blankets on the bed, closed the bedroom door so the heat would be contained in the room, and tried to sleep. It was pitch black and completely silent, and I really longed for Janet's company and body heat. Every hour or so, a tree limb would snap from the weight of the ice and crash to the ground, or the power would attempt to come back on, so I would wake up.

At 7:00, the power finally came back up, and the heat has been running almost continuously since then. It got down into the 20s last night, but I was able to keep my body temperature relatively comfortable. I do, however, have a cold now, and the insides of my nostrils are raw and sore. But I'm very glad to have power again; half a million people here still don't. My parents in Fuquay never lost power, but their phones are out.

Man, I wish Janet was here.

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If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

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