Last night here in Abilene a huge storm blew through causing wind damage and some flooding. In many areas the power went out, and in some cases,took more than 24 hours to be restored. I was lucky, our power was out only about an hour. So what do you do when the power goes out?

It was still light outside when we lost power and not knowing how long it would be out, I had to find candles. We moved last summer and I couldn't remember where they were but I did find a few along with a couple of flashlights. However, this isn't exactly what I was talking about. What do you do, for fun, when the electricity goes out. Maybe a better question is: how do you entertain teenagers from the 21st century who know nothing but electronic gadgets?

My 14 year old and his buddy were both texting on their phones when the power went out and they realized they both had less than 10% battery left on them. You would have thought the world was coming to an end. 'What do we do when our phones die, we only have like 4% battery left? How are we going to charge them? Really, dad, how are we going to charge them?' were the questions we heard until we told them in it came down to it they could charge them in the car. They settled down then. But all of this got me to thinking about things you can do when the power goes out.(And these won't result in a population increase in 9 months either!)

We love games. Dominoes is our latest game of choice. It's fun, it's easy and you can play anywhere at any time even by candlelight. It's also a game that any age can play.  Charades is always a fun game, card games like spades or hearts, even an old board game like Monopoly can be a great way to pass the time.

Our own Dave Wheaton gave this suggestion. He said when he was living near the coast and had to ride out a hurricane, he grabbed his laptop and sat in his car watching movies. Now, I'm not sure this is your best option during a storm but if it's a simple power outage then this might not be a bad idea. You may get some strange looks from your neighbors however.

I would, personally, choose to maybe read a book. You can do this by simple candlelight or book light. Many of us have the new Kindles or e-books, some of which, are even back lit.

You could tell ghost stories too. You tell ghost stories in the dark anyway so this is a perfect opportunity to make up some good ones.

No matter what you do you have to make the best of it. Complaining about it doesn't help so try to have fun. Oh, and kids will survive without those cell phones. They may hyperventilate for a few minutes but they will live.

 

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