Many weeks ago, my daughter and I were sitting down to supper. I asked her the question that I usually ask her at the end of the day; “Well, did you learn anything today?” Fortunately, she still answers me thoughtfully and doesn’t just grunt or ignore me…yet. She replied on this particular, atypically warm day in February: “I like Spring; it smells like the last day of school.” I’ll never forget it. The anticipation and happiness at the thought of school letting out, beamed from her face.

Isn’t that how we were all feeling that Sunday when most of us were sitting in our silent, chilly houses with our circuits all disconnected? Probably, the farthest from it for most of us: the consensus was that it was a long day, more than a day for quite a few, and it was boring and cold. Personally, I love to wake up in the morning when the power is off. The world is at a mandatory standstill which is a huge, welcome delight and relief. It’s as though the earth stopped spinning out of control. Being a Sunday; no one was expecting me to be anywhere and I could lay there and enjoy the complete slience. No humming , no fans, no computer noise, no phone, no fridge kicking on and off. Only the sound and vibration of the cat’s motor running against my ear. He must have detected a slight nip in the air at some point during the night; when I opened my eyes, I kind of felt like it was as if he was attmpting to have as much of his surface area pressed up against my warm head as felinely possible. This tactic proved successful,judging by his outward signs of contentment. The Spring birds were outside my window, dicussing the unseasonal weather as well. You could tell that they were confused and miffed at the whole situation, possibly discussing the idea that they may have returned too soon, and whose fault that was.

The temperature outside wasn’t as cold as it could have been so snuggling back in bed with a book and my warm, water-bottle of a cat, was an option for keeping toasty, at least for a little while. How often do we take the time out of our lives to just linger in bed and read? What a treat on a Sunday morning before the Spring chores begin and our outdoor, after-work lives, start all over for the season.

Not only did the outage provide us with time to catch up on some reading but how many of us drug out the familly board games? Those boxes we put away in the closet once the Wii, Nintendo DS and 24-hour Sports channels took over the house, made their way to the forefront on Sunday. Twister, Monopoly, Connect 4, Apples to Apples, Clue, Life, Chess, Go Fish and my least favorite: Dream Date Barbie. Eventually, our frosty feet got the better of us and we had to head for higher ground, in other words; a house with electrictiy. But even that was a welcome change, to stop and visit with family on the weekend, without rushing around trying to get everythning done beofre the work week starts again. You can’t finish the laundry without power….oh! for that excuse on a regular basis.

The other thing I did on that Sunday morning was pray. I’m not a religious person really, but something I witnessed, while driving in that crazy storm on Saturday night moved me to ask for help for the family who woke up Sunday morning, not only out of power, but out of their home. I know a lot of us were complaining about the electrical company and how much time it took them to get us country folk all juiced up and back to normal, but they were out there working in full force with teams of trucks everywhere ereecting ples and stringing lines. Almost all of us can be thankful to the electricians, the firemen, and the paramedics, that hours of power was all that we lost to that storm.

This morning, as I let the anxious, aforementioned cat out on to the deck for his morning constitution; I stood out in the morning air and took a few deep breaths in. Even though there were still several small, lingering clumps of snow glowing in the dawn’s shadows on the grass…..I could detect that undeniable scent, yes, definitely…..the last day of school.