Got home from work at 11pm to find the power out. Adrienne had called (from the cell) and after I walked her through how to shut down UPS-protected computers, she said she was going to bed in the darkness; not much else to do. Coming home to a completely dark house on a completely dark dead-end street reminded me what I like so much about snow storms: the time right after when everything is so peacefully quiet. Sure, we’re in the ‘burbs but hearing that silence brought out how noisy our surroundings and lives really are. From the cat’s water dish to the washing machine to the neighbor’s loud tv (yes, we can still hear it at times), life still is quite loud. I only got about 5 minutes of quiet beauty until everything sprang to life. And while it’s nice to know the refrigerator is again making sure my milk won’t spoil and the bedroom AC is making sure my wife won’t spoil, the easy silence was really nice too.