Stumbling around in the dark

Yeah, that could be the general theme of my life. Found out how dependent we are on electricity tonight when a Moby Dick of a storm knocked the power out for four hours. Even internet went out -- didn't see that coming. I was working on a freelance deadline when C*R*A*S*H*
Thought lightning hit the house, because in the sudden quietness and darkness, I swore I saw the dining room filling with faint but odorless white smoke. (Turns out my glasses were just fogged up from the monsoonish rain.)
Spent most of the four power-out hours in the kitchen, scraping dirt off the solar lawn lights and putting new batteries in them, so we'd have SOME light inside the house, and the other part of the four hours down the pitch-black basement, bailing water out of the flooding sump pump. (And tripping over assorted furniture, boxes of God knows what and stuff I've been meaning to sell on eBay for the last five years.)
Now the power's back on. (Waaah -- I kind of liked being disconnected.) Now am probably not going to make my deadline because I'm here losing my blog-virginity. (My editor will understand.)