the electric hours

i looked up. it was almost dark outside. i blinked my eyes and rubbed them. they felt strained and achey. i glanced at my watch; i could barely see my watch. i realized i had been sitting at the table with the computer glowing and a pile of books and papers heaped in front of me, with no lights on. the dogs were fast asleep on their beds on the other side of the room. my husband had a late meeting so there was no supper in the oven or on the grill. a mound of dirty laundry waited to be loaded in the washer; clean laundry lay wrinkled in the drier.

it had been light in the room a few minutes ago, hadn't it?

i had completely lost track of the last two hours.

whoosh! two hours gone, escaped from right under my nose.

losing a couple hours could, on the one hand, be viewed quite negatively. i had two hours less of my life to live. but that's just being morbid. and ridiculous. a woman said to me once she didn't like to get too much sleep because she would get plenty of sleep when she was dead. really now. hmmm.....but that doesn't stop me from catching some zzzz's when i need them! or from getting so preoccupied i have no idea what time it is.

on the other hand, "losing" some time could be a good thing. i "lost" the hours because i was busy with paperwork. i was also reading over other people's fine words. and deciding which mound of papers to toss in the recycling bin. and, ok, i confess, maybe there was a little daydreaming thrown in the mix, too. b.o.r.i.n.g. (except for the daydreaming part; and the reading-over-fine-words part. i love lingering with words, surrounding myself with the shockingly good company of words written by strangers.) but productive, too. not a bad use of two hours. it was quiet and i got a lot done. the hours weren't wasted, but they had certainly vanished.

i pressed a switch and then there was light.

how easy electric lights are. how comforting. you go from dismal darkness into happy brightness. it made me think about the days of yore (like in that friends episode), when adults hung around in the darkness after sunset with not much going on except eye strain and nookie. come on, did everyone just go to bed if there were no dances or quilting bees or card games to enjoy?

i am going to have to think some more about electricity and the electric, electrifying (which means thrilling and exciting, right?) lives we lead today compared to a long time ago. isn't everything way more exciting nowadays because of electricity? since i never lived in the days of yore i don't have any proof that we have more fun now. i only have a thought or two about stumbling around in the dark—and heading straight to bed—versus not stumbling around in the dark.

sorry for all the rambling on and on. do forgive me. i'm about to run off to nether wallop and places like that for a while. i'll collect my thoughts later.