On.

For those of you who have "been in the dark" about the power outage in Louisville, we got quite a beating from Hurricane Ike's brief visit to Kentucky. No rain, but winds up to 80 mph. It was pretty awesome to watch on Sunday...but not awesome to get home from church and realize that we were among the 300,000 without power. Even in the midst of the natural inconveniences that power outages cause, the Lord's mercies towards us have been numerous and have completely outweighed any annoyance we might have had. Here's a sample:

-Several friends close by to us never lost power, so we were able to mooch hot showers, hot meals, and laundry off of them for several days. And we were able to save most of our food from the freezer and fridge! (Thanks, Faulkners, Heaths, and Thayers!)

-The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here all week, highs in the 70s, cool at night. Ideal conditions for "indoor camping."

-Because Adam now works for the power company, he's been working 12 hours shifts and was even called in on Sunday. While this may not sound like a perk, it's actually a blessing in disguise. The overtime cash is pretty sweet, especially in a month when our budget was going to be cutting it a little close. Plus, we saved on several days of electricity and groceries! If we're going to be out of power, it's nice to be getting paid for it, right?

Thankfully, our power came back on this morning at 10am. It took me a moment to realize it was even happening. Luckily, I was on the phone with a friend who lives in our apartment complex who was able to explain to me the obvious: "Mary, the power's back on!"

So, 3 1/2 days of powerlessness later, we McCullochs are a more thankful people.