Strained Prunes by Candelight

Apr 19, 2010 | Filed Under: Candy's Column

You know that Cinderella song, “Don’t Know What You’ve Got (Till It’s Gone)“? Turns out, the glam metal rockers were hoarding some wisdom under that ridiculously big hair because it is SO true. Due to a blown transformer, we were without power for about 24 hours this weekend and boy, oh boy, did we realize how much we take electricity for granted. Refrigerated breast milk? Spoiled. Lights? Nope. Baby monitor? Uh-uh. Internet? *GULP* Down. (Particularly awesome, given I had just promised we would “return to your regularly scheduled programming” today.) Garage door? Stuck. Microwave? As Mr. Candy noted, we realized we would starve without it.

How did people SURVIVE before electricity, we wondered. I guess we’ll have to ask Larry King.

The nice thing about not having power…? It forced us to step away from the TV and computer and, you know, actually spend time — a lot of time — together as a family. After a fun day of walking around the city, Miss Skye enjoyed inhaling her evening prunes by candlelight. She also slept soundly through the night, despite her top teeth breaking through (ouch), most likely because of the pitch black house. (Or, um, maybe we didn’t hear her crying because of the whole no-baby-monitor-thing. Let’s just assume she slept through the night, okay?) Meanwhile, Marcy enjoyed chasing the light shining from the flashlight throughout the house. And Matty…? He enjoyed being a bump on the log, as usual. Dark, light, Apocalypse now, it’s all the same to him so long as he gets his Meow Mix. (More on him later.)

“SO nice to have peace and quiet for once, isn’t it?” I sighed contentedly as Mr. Candy and I cuddled on the couch in front of the blank television screen. “Uh-huh,” Mr. Candy grumbled, visions of the NBA playoffs dancing in his head.

Quality family time. There’s nothing better.

2 Comments

About Candy

Candy Kirby is the founder of The Laughing Stork and a professional fun-maker who will never stop chasing her lifelong dream: to find the Pomeranian or porn star after whom her parents must have named her. She also used to be a staff writer for the soap opera, The Bold and the Beautiful, where she penned many scripts featuring prolonged heated stares and countless “Who’s the Daddy?” story lines. Candy lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two young kids and three rescue Persian cats who enjoy blanketing every inch of the house in kitty fur. For more of Candy's nonsense, check out her personal Twitter, The Laughing Stork's Twitter and The Laughing Stork's Facebook page.

2 Responses to “Strained Prunes by Candelight”

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Cowgirl in the Sand says:

The mention of the spoiled breast milk made me have a very vivid flashback to a similar situation we had with my first child. Our freezer broke, and I lost 52 bags of frozen breast milk. 52 bags. I cried as I opened them and dumped them, one by one, down the drain. It was over 3 gallons worth of milk.

Just thinking about it makes me want to cry again.

I’m glad you got to enjoy some quality (if dark) family time though!
April 19th, 2010 at 3:34 pm - Reply
Candy says:

52 bags? That is just painful. Makes my lousy ruined six ounces seem, well, not so lousy.
April 19th, 2010 at 11:16 pm - Reply