Shining some love on my flashlight

In the words of Oprah: You get a car! And you get a car! And you get a car!

OK, a disclaimer to my family who is reading this. You’re not getting cars from me, but I’ve got something just as good.

You get a flashlight! And you get a flashlight! And you get a flashlight!

And not just any flashlight — THE flashlight.

Whenever the power goes out at our house (as it did last Friday night during that wicked wind), we turn on this flashlight and I marvel at how much this thing illuminates the interior of our house.

It almost feels like we still have power in any room where the flashlight is. It’s a marine flashlight that my husband purchased at a marine shop. It even has a red “flare” feature, which my son Justin and I discovered last Friday makes a cool filtertype photo when you’re killing time during a power outage.

Honestly, the flashlight has become the highlight of power outages. We point and shine it at things because we’re so amazed by it.

That’s not to say I’m not prepared when we have an outage. I have a gazillion decorative candles throughout the main floor of our house in the kitchen, living room, sunroom, bathroom, hallway, etc. My family often tells me I have a ridiculous amount of these battery-operated candles — until a power outage hits, then it’s like I don’t have enough.

Some are on timers. The harder-to-reach ones I can control with a remote control. Others I have to turn on manually. They’re quite pretty, although the light they throw off pales in comparison to the flashlight.

It’s my mom’s birthday this week. She’s getting a flashlight.

It’s my dad’s next month. He’s getting one.

I told my sister on the phone Friday night to expect one.

And to my son Jacob, if you’re reading this from Dartmouth, distance not only makes the heart grow fonder, but it also means you’re getting a flashlight, only I’m not sure when.

My sister Lisa thought I was a little loopy going on and on about how great this flashlight is until I sent her a photo of my living room lit up by the flashlight sitting on the coffee table. “Wow!” she said. She had to admit it works wonders, even though it won’t keep us warm or flush our toilet during a power outage.

As she and I were talking on the phone I reminisced about the big Groundhog Day storm 44 years ago. She mentioned she remembered very little about that storm. “You were there,” I pointed her.

Yes, she acknowledged, but she was two years old.

Point taken.

I talked about how as a family we spent most of those days without power in our living room, with the entry way covered by a blanket to try to keep the heat in the room. Everywhere else in the house was very cold. Since I was just six years old I don’t have a lot of memories myself, but I do remember mixing chocolate powder in my milk and placing my mug next to the fireplace to “make” hot chocolate. All I accomplished was making the mug itself too hot to drink out of. The milk inside was just lukewarm.

One thing I did say is I don’t remember being particularly bored during power outages back then. Seems to me we pulled out a deck of cards or a board game to pass the time. Or, I just played with my Barbies and other toys.

Times have changed. I can recall several years ago when the power went out at our house and it took all of two minutes for my boys to proclaim, “We’re bored!”

Now if the power goes out it’s usually a refrain of, “I wish my phone had been charged more.”

Although I'm not sure why anyone would need a phone to stay entertained during a power outage.

After all, we’ve got the flashlight.