Power's Out!

After Rophone got home tonight we headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things we needed for dinner.  Bud was able to nab a cart just his size, and I grabbed one to stick Big in, and we were off.  We were having a good time, drooling over the stuff on the shelves since we were all hungry (albeit walking a little nervously, just waiting to be clipped in the heels by Bud's cart--it reminded me of the guy in high school in the motorized wheelchair and the panic in people's eyes when they heard the chair behind them in the packed hallways between classes), when suddenly with a big clunk it was pitch black!  

It was so odd.  We ordered the kids to stand still and a moment later a few overhead lights came on. It was weird to walk around in the dim light finishing our shopping-- almost like everything was in slow motion. The situation elicited a strange reaction in me.  I felt kind of like I needed to rush the shelves and start stockpiling food (making Rophone pay for it, of course--I still have a ways to go with the retail therapy).  I don't know if it felt kind of like we were in the middle of some natural disaster because of the lack of windows and dim light, or if I felt some misplaced need to save the refrigerated items languishing on the shelves, but I resisted and we went to check out with our few items.

Since the belts weren't working Rophone just used his long arm to sweep the items forward. Right as we were finishing our purchase the power came back on and it seemed to come along with a big collective sigh of relief from all the shoppers.  I must admit that I like shopping with the lights all on and the hum of the refrigerators in the background much better than the way we did it tonight. Like I said, very odd.