I Know This Much Is True

I was awakened shortly after 1 a.m. to the beeping of a dying battery alert from a smoke alarm. These alarms are hard wired into the house, and the battery is only for backup. It turns out the power had failed.  The house was dark, my phone near dead, and the dog on the bed punchy-pawing me as the chirping of the smoke alarm scared the bejeezus out of her. I groped in the dark to the floor where my pajamas reside in the night, finding them and then sitting down to put them on one leg at a time. Willow and I went downstairs and I let her go do her business--searching for squirrels and raccoons as it turns out--and giving her a treat on her return.  I sat on the couch for a moment, trying to grok how to proceed if the power was not back in the morning. I could go to work, I thought, and then laughed loudly in my head at the idea. Shrugging my shoulders, the chirp of the smoke alarm sounded again. Given the number and size of the house, I wasn't sure where it was coming from, so I set out to explore. I found the culprit in the office just down from my room, and closed the door to mute it's annoyingly evenly timed interruption of the peace. I walked back to my room and closed the double doors softly and not too securely, to allow entrance to Willow should she desire to come in at some point. I turned around to climb in bed and saw streaking blue lights across the valley on I-5 south--what a view!--the State Patrol in action.  Grabbing my phone, I put on This Week in Virology--a podcast guaranteed to knock you out if you chance to wake up in the deep darkness as I do on occasion. My phone was at 10 percent, which in iPhone means .5 percent. I rolled over. The podcast didn't drown out the incessant noise of the alarm, but it pushed me back into deep sleep almost immediately.

The power is still out as of 7:41. I had to go get coffee at Safeway and saw a fleet of Seattle City Light trucks up on Military. Oh, joy.