MODAY DIARY: ALMOST EXCRUCIATINGLY TRUE STORIES: HOW I KNEW IT WAS THE JULY 4TH WEEKEND

 I knew something was wrong the moment I opened my eyes on Father's Day Sunday.  It was WAY too quiet.  The power was out.  Fr. Leonard stopped me in the hallway and said, "I called the power company and they said the power would not be back on until 9:30AM."  

Eh.  That was fine.  We would be into the Mass schedule already but - hey - isn't it handy that we use candles anyway?

I remember that I used to look forward to the power going out.  When I was kid (yes, WAY back then,) it seemed like the power went out all the insane time.  We had a handy box of old holiday candles that we would break out and light and TALK and marvel at the darkness and quiet.  If was nice weather, we would go out and talk to the neighbors about any gossip they heard about why the lights were out (far less scary back then - no-one thought of terrorists) or, if it was winter, a fire would be lit in the fireplace.

It's much more complicated now and at the parish.  When the power went out it knocked out the phones and the Internet.  That meant nobody could contact us.  But worse, our HVAC is controlled by the Internet (why, I don't know) and when the power came back on, it didn't have any information being sent to it because the Internet was still down so it went to default mode which is MID JANUARY!

 Yes, the AC shut down and the boilers fired up.  It was a hot day and the dutiful boilers pumped heat into the already sweaty 11:00 Mass.  OF COURSE this never happens on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.  Of course it was a holiday weekend.  That is the only time these things happen.  And of course everybody is closed or on vacation.  Blessing on John McVicar who came in and saved us from playing sweat camp.  

Of course, the REAL tragedy was that meant NO COFFE in the morning.  That was my biggest concern.  By 11:00 o'clock Mass I would be insufferable (or more insufferable than normal.)  And then I remembered!  I bought a coffee maker during out mission trip to El Salvador!  You put ground coffee in a dirty sock and drip it into a pot!  So I got out a hand coffee grinder that had been relegated to shelf ornamentation and ground some coffee.  Oh!  But how to light the burner to heat up some water?  Fortunately we have gas and I lit it with a match feeling very manly and considering the possibility that I could survive in the jungle for longer than fifteen minutes.  

 And of course the SECOND the last drop of coffee fell into the pot, the power came back on.  It was like voodoo.  Of course it happened that way.