Another viscious storm moved through the neighborhood this morning. The wind was whipping the trees around like they were made of rubber. But no more large trees felled on our lot, anyway, and we have, thus far, kept our electricity. And while we heard another explosion-like noise � loud enough that our neighbors called to check on us � we saw no flames or smoke or downed wires.

Others have not been so fortunate. Our neighbors two doors down are in the dark for the second day in a row. And when I arrived at AJ�s preschool to pick him up, the children were sitting in a circle on the floor in the dark making assorted cat-like noises. AJ ran up to me when he saw me across the dusky room. �Meow!�

�Are you a cat today?�
�No. We�re just playing Crazy Cubes.�
Aptly named.

Crazy Cubes is a set of two cardboard boxes. On one, it tells you something to do and on the other it has a picture of how you�re supposed to do it � �Talk� + �Like a cat� in this case. AJ first encountered these in his two-year-old preschool class. He tried to describe it and we made our own at home out of some construction paper, a small, cubic box and a whole lot of clear packing tape. It�s still one of AJ�s favorite games.

But Crazy Cubes aside, there was still something pathetic about a bunch of four-year-olds sitting around in the dark. AJ was pleased to see that we had lights when he got home. Even though the front hall was illuminated, he ran up to his room to check on his light switch and his clock. �Hey, Mommy, they work!� All this was especially fortunate because AJ received his very own computer today. Our neighbors who are moving were getting rid of a spare PC, almost new, complete with speakers and software. Despite the fact that I have very little non-Mac experience (the first family computer was a hulking Apple II-plus when I was a kid, on which my brother and I would play a lot of Pong and Space Invaders) it took me about 5 minutes to set the whole thing up and AJ was happily playing Dr. Seuss games in a matter of minutes. The computer, which is shiny and purposeful looking, compared to my tiny and somewhat battered laptop, is lending my office an air of authenticity. Even while its screen is dark � sleeping � it emits an industrious hum that gives me the illusion of being in an actual workplace instead of an excessively hyphenated space: office-gym-sewing room-laundry room-storage room. Its chief purpose, thus far, however, has been to force me to clean the crap off my extra desk � a long overdue task that resulted in the finding of lost business cards, a pile of Christmas cards from two years ago that I never sent, and the music to a Palestrina Mass.

And now I must return to tedious tasks � making lists, checking them twice, and editing, editing, editing. AJ�s countdown to vacation now reads 3. Holy Cow.

0 people said it like they meant it