Our neighborhood's power supply was cut off for an hour last evening, we don't know why, but I can tell you what people up and do when the power goes out (that last phrase inspired by Flannery O'Connor's neighbor who after reading a few of O'Connor's stories said, "Them there stories will show you what people will just up and do.").
We and our neighbors do something none of us do enough: we got out. We had already planned to ride bikes when the power went out, but as the five of us rode, we counted dozens of neighbors walking, riding, sitting on the front porch stoop (would someone please remind me to post a little piece about my front porch stoop sometime?).
We know the neighbors in several houses any direction from us and a few other people in our 500-home neighborhood, but for the most part we live as strangers in this 21st-century community where cars dip into driveways, the driver clicks a button, enters garage, then pushes the button for the door to close behind before a neighbor can get a word under the door edgewise.
Jill later mused about what life would be like without power: maybe more...powerful.
4:45:37 PM 
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