Cincinnati Pioneer Days

Hurricane Ike ushered in what might become a new Dincler family tradition - The Blackout. On Sunday we saw 60+ mph winds, which left a lot of damage all over Cincinnati to homes, vehicles, businesses, and worst, the electric. As I type this, hundreds of thousands of people around the city remain without electricity.

Jenny and I lost our power on Sunday at around 4 pm. At first, it was annoying. I mean, how can a guy survive without access to his Yahoo! Fantasy Football Stat Tracker? I had no clue how any of my guys were doing, and I was in such high hopes of pulling out wins in both the leagues I'm in. Too bad I'm relying on a couple of Bengals players to help me out with that.

After about an hour, I resigned to the fact that we would be without power for a while. I think it happened when Jenny started lighting candles all over the house. I love candlelight. I love the candle ambiance - the warm, soft light flickering against a wall or ceiling, filling this part of a room, and then another. The flames seem alive, and dancing. It is so soothing, and also reminds me of soft Christmas lights. That's never a bad thing.

We both took to reading. Jenny had just finished The Shack, by William P. Young, for her monthly book club, and she could not stop recommending that I read it. So, she started Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller, and I started The Shack. It was incredible! I'm not going to go into detail right now; I'll be starting another blog, and I'll kick it off with my thoughts on the book. Suffice it to say for now, it is one of the best books I have ever read, and should be a must-read for ever follower of Jesus.

I was so enjoying the whole atmosphere, the slow down, that I told Jenny we should make something like this a regular thing in our family. We could call it a "Blackout Day." For the duration of the day, there would be no use of electricity, specifically - no TV, no DVDs, no video games, no computers or Internet, no iPods, etc. You know, the things we use to entertain and sometimes numb ourselves. It would be a fast from the Matrix, in a way, a day of outside fun, exploration, reading, journaling, discussion, quiet, calm, and candlelight. I like it.

I would have finished the book Sunday night by the warm glow of candlelight, but my eyelids proved too heavy, and I was forced to wrap up the experience Monday morning. That was a rough night. It was too quiet. I had no bed-side fan to wrap me in white noise, buffering my ears from every little sound coming through the open windows. I must have woke up over half a dozen times, to either my own snoring, a noise from outside, or Brach, our Yorkie, being triggered into a barking fit by the same.

Monday continued our adventure as Pioneers, roughing it without the modern luxuries of electricity, warm water, or fresh food. Ultimately, we were forced to make camp at my parents' stead, who had recovered their power sometime that day. My grandma joined us, and we all had a good time checking email and Fantasy Football stats (I was 1-1 in Week 2)! We all enjoyed some lasagna for dinner, and watched some Monday Night Football. Jenny and I retired to my old room, and did our best to fit into the double bed, along with Brach, and towards the morning, Kaylyn as well.

To make the whole experience more authentic, I suppose, Jenny woke me up at 3 am to inform me that she had let Brach out to pee, and he had run after what he thought was a skunk. She was right. My witching-hour screams through gritted teeth brought him back to the front door, reeking of burnt rubber. We immediately took him o the basement utility tub, dousing him with soap, shampoo, and cold V-8 (serves him right). After a quick Google search (so good, but so liberal), we threw together a concoction of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and Dawn dish soap. It did the trick. After two scrubbings, it got rid of most of the smell. We finished it off with some Downy fabric softener. You can still smell skunk on him today, albeit faint compared to the original dose. It's not enough to warrant an immediate bath again, but it's enough that I plan on heading back over to Mom and Dad's to finish the job.

As evidenced by this very blog post, we are back in the Matrix, fully plugged in and powered on. But I do look forward to future Pioneer Days.