Bye Bye IKE!

I am a firm believer in the intersection of karma, cosmic timing, and the-getting-of-what-you-desperately-need. Once again, this temporal voodoo has proven itself true:

6:10 PM: We arrive home to our town-without-power
6:13 PM: We go through the FEMA line to get two bags of ice
6:23 PM: Bumpus goes to get the kids from his parents
6:30 PM: I decide that I should do something productive with my last 45 minutes of light
6:31-6:55 PM: I clean out the icebox, wipe the whole thing down with soapy water, rinse all the shelves, door holder thingys, etc.
6:56 PM: I say this outloud--"Okay God, I finally cleaned out the nasty icebox. I know I should have done that months ago, but that brown dried stuff really creeped me out. You didn't have to send a hurrycane to get me to finally do this and all...well, yes, I guess it take a hurrycane or at least a big ol power outage to get me to do this. Okay, I see the era of my ways. Now I done what I shoulda done. Can we have some lights soon?"
7:15 PM: Bumpus arrives home with children and with a fabulous warm dinner, sent by his parents
7:16-7:45 PM: We eat, read the paper sitting outside in the last daylight and West-Nile-infected swarms of mosquitos, having a lovely and peaceful family time
7:55 PM: The neighbor knocks on our door: THE POWER IS ON!
7:56 PM: We throw all the breakers, and indeed, we have LIGHTS!
7:57-7:58 PM: I do a rather enthusiastic but somewhat uncoordinated and a little bit skanky "Thank the Ba'hai and the whole voodoo theory for working like it should!" dance in the driveway
8:00 PM: I run around to the neighbors telling them to turn off those noisy po-lutin generaters and light up!
8:05 PM: I realize that the street behind us, where all these neighbors live, doesn't actually have power yet
8:10 PM: I come back home and tell Bumpus, "Well, thank god we're on the better side of the power lines. I hope their lights come on soon, but in the meantime, they can have their generaters...I'm washing some of my laundry!"
8:15 PM: I put laundry in the washer on cold and dream of how long it will take the hot water heater to get revved up for my bath and then for the dishwasher full of crusty dishes that has been sitting there since last Friday night...
8:17 PM: It occurs to me that maybe, just maybe, they will have school tomorrow and I won't have to take all three children to my 11:30-1:30 lunch meeting at a non-kid-friendly restaurant. I am feeling giddy with relief!
8:18 PM: I sit down, check my email, and decide to write a blog posting about how my voodoo worked and life is good--except for those people behind us with the generaters
8:20 PM: The lights flicker twice and go back out.
Somewhere around 10:00 PM: We go to bed, still in no-power mode.
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8:00 AM, Day 7: Magoo and I are laying in bed, the first time to get a full night's rest in 6 days. I listen to the electronic* church bells playing from downtown, through my open window...

*For those who have inhaled the dust from too much scoopable cat litter (among other things), that means that the town, as well as our house, had e-lec-tri-city.