Forces Of Nature

Last night, we had another lightning storm.  Just before the worst of it, I went out to take the trash can down to the curb.  They were scheduled to pick up in the early morning.  It was cool out and there was a nice breeze. I remember feeling so invigorated.  Lately, we've had a lot of storms.  You might say, we've grown accustomed to being at the mercy of the forces of nature.
It was a little after 1900hrs, and we were on the way out the door heading to a regular scout meeting, when the entire neighborhood lost its power.  I told our youngest to call some of his fellow scouts and see if their power was out as well.  He did, and, in the process, discovered the power was out in several neighborhoods...including the building where they hold their meetings.  So, he went up and changed out of his uniform.  We were in for the night.
We pulled out flashlights and went around lighting candles.  We set our cell phones to alarm at 0600hrs just in case.  We did all those things that good scouts would do.  It was stress free, because, like good scouts, we were prepared.  
"So what do you want to do now?"  "Well, if Dad was here, we could play dominoes."  "How about cards?"  So, he found a pack of cards and, for the next fifteen minutes or so, we played blackjack.  It was fun.  I mentioned that, had he not finished his homework, he would be doing it like the early pioneers...by candlelight.  Luckily, that was not an issue.    
While we were playing cards, it was difficult to erase the scent of the candle that sat nearest to us.  It was an ice cream candle my brother had given us for Christmas.  It looked just like three scoops of ice cream, with whipped cream and a wax cherry on top.  Oh and get this..it smelled just like mouth watering chocolate.  "Thanks a lot, Jim. (my brother)"
What did I want to do?  What do you think I wanted to do?  I wanted to raid the freezer and have a huge bowl of ice cream.  I mean, the power was out.  We had to save it before it melted, right?  When I said this aloud, my son just laughed.  Like his mom was going to eat ice cream and not even the low fat sugar free kind.  He probably can't remember the last time I had a bowl of rich decadent non-healthy Chocolatey goodness.  Yes, I thought about it, and then opted instead for a sugar free dark chocolate mini candy bar from my special candy dish stash.  We moved to the living room and each read from our kindles.  In about an hour, everything came back on all at once.  We reset clocks and watched the remainder of "The X Factor" together.  After that, we went to bed.
Just before morning, I had a bad dream.  In it, I was caught in a storm (Gosh I wonder where that came from).  Like last night, in my dream, the phones were knocked out.  I honestly can't remember much about the dream, but I was startled and awakened suddenly by what I thought was a phone call.  I remember thinking, "The phones are working again."  I sat up in bed and looked at the clock.  It read 1745hrs (5:45pm).  When the power came back on, we had mistakenly reset it for the wrong hour .  Had I not had the bad dream, I would not have awakened on time (0600).  We would have most likely overslept.  My son probably would've been late for school.
I reset the clock.  My heart was pounding, but it wasn't just my worrying about whether or not the clock would sound.  My mind and body were still reacting to whatever I had dreamed.  I took deep breaths and thought pleasant thoughts.  I told myself...the storm had ended, the power was back on, and my treadmill was awaiting my first step of the day.  Life was good.  And that lightning storm wasn't alone.  I, too, was a powerful force of nature.