Ah, yes, Murphy's Law.

A big wind storm blew through early Thursday morning, dropping trees and tree limbs galore on power lines throughout the Eastern Townships.

Our power went out about 10 a.m. and it wasn't sort of restored until 9 p.m. because our community is so small and relatively isolated. The spousal unit and I own a generator for just this reason, as does my mom-in-law.

Our generator has, uh, personality. Sometimes it will start on the first pull of the cord and purr away for hours. Other times it takes little short of human sacrifice to get the thing to start and it wheezes and sputters the whole time it is running.

Thursday our generator was in a mood. Thursday the world did not understand our generator. As the spousal unit tinkered with it to get it first to start and secondly to run smoothly I offered a steady stream of helpful hints.

After about half an hour of my helpful hints and growing frustration with the generator, it became clear that if human sacrifice would be needed to get the machine to run, the spousal unit would be glad to volunteer me for the cause. I went back to the house and busied myself staring at the dishes I could not wash.

Around 9 p.m. our lights came on. It was wonderful. We could hear the soft hum appliances, glorious appliances. Our water pump ran. Water, nectar of the gods.

And then the spousal unit heard an odd sound and looked out our window. A tree had fallen. It had fallen directly on our power line, just a few feet from the transformer.

The tree was burning, sending out a spectacular shower of electrical sparks at the same time. It would have been quite a sight except for the fact that this tree would take out our power within a few minutes and the spousal unit knew that. The tree was also hanging over our road which meant there was no way to safely drive the Marnmobile down into the valley and chase down the hydro crew before they left the valley.

At 9:20 our power went out. Figuring he would no longer get electrocuted if the line came down, the spousal unit drove down into the valley and searched for the hydro crew. Long gone.

We called Hydro and they told us the soonest we would see power would be 7 p.m. Friday. As an added bonus, the tree on our line blew his mother's circuit breaker and that of a neighbour. Around us in the valley electrical lights twinkled, appliances hummed. Us, we had to listen to the roar of our generator which has enough power to keep the fridge and freezer going but not a lot else.

And, as an added bonus, the spousal unit's mom's generator refused to start at all, so he got to spend a fair bit of Friday ferrying our generator back up and down the hill to keep all the food in her fridge and freezer from spoiling.

Good times.

Fortunately, Friday was my gym day, so I at least got to shower and wash my hair before hopping on to the bus for Montreal. Glorious, glorious hot water. Nevermore shall I take thee for granted.

The daughter and I have picked up our registration packages for the Jog for the Jugs on Sunday. If the weather predictions hold, we're going to have one of those fabulous fall days that are such a gift what with winter being about ten minutes away and all. It should be quite an experience. They're predicting a record turnout.

I want to thank my three loyal readers for so generously supporting this charity. Almost $900 raised, which is amazing considering all the other great causes that have been rattling their tin cups this year. I've lived through the terror of waiting for the results of a breast lump biopsy. So far the news has been good for me, but I know that for one in nine women it won't be.

Here's hoping they not only find better treatments and cures in my lifetime; here's hoping that they can come to understand the "why" of this disease so they can prevent it and you zygotes never have to fear this illness as I do.

--Marn

P.S.�If you have a few bucks to spare, please consider donating to the Jog for the Jugs. Remember, all your donations are going to help in the fight against breast cancer and they're in Canadian dollars, which are only marginally more valuable than monopoly money. The most recent Bazonga Boosters (or Bustiers) to their friends are: