Alone in the dark

I had a great swim last night. Claudia and I met up and did 3 sets of the first group of drills, plus a couple of laps to top it off. It felt pretty good and is getting easier and faster, although I think my form is still darn sloppy. I'm working on keeping my legs up, improving my arm stroke, and not swallowing any water while I'm concentrating on other things. For the first time there was someone in the lane next to me creating waves and splashing. The first few times I was splashed it startled me and I noticed I was working harder to go straight when there were waves. I guess having company in the pool is a good idea since it's better preparation for the real race. Where people will actually be kicking me in the head.

There were a few times in the back-and-forthing last night when it felt as if I wasn't moving at all. My perception was that I was just floating there with no forward progress. I'm pretty certain that wasn't true since Claudia would have been even further ahead than she was, but it's a strange feeling. I often feel like I'm running backwards when people pass me by so I guess I'll get used to the feeling in the pool too. Yeah, probably on the bike too.

After swimming I headed home to do my leg strengthening exercises and stretches. I finally finished them (with a break for dinner) at at 9:45 pm. Way too late. I had just gotten comfortable on the sofa and grabbed the remote to turn to the news when the lights flickered. I thought it might have been my imagination and I ignored it, but it happened again. Then again. Then all the lights went out for a minute and came back on. I was getting concerned and got up when the lights went out again and didn't reappear. I found the nearest flashlight and then looked outside. It was pitch black, not a light anywhere. There was a haze so it was hard to tell if the lights on the hill were out or if the lights across town were out. It seemed like they were out too.

I walked outside. Because walking outside in the pitch dark at 10pm is a good idea? I dunno, it seemed like the right thing to do at the time. It was perfectly still and I couldn't even hear freeway noise. None of the other neighbors shared my idea of bonding in the dark and it felt like I was the only person awake in the subdivision. Oooh, spooooooky! I went back in and locked up, but I wasn't sleepy enough to go to bed so I found my running headlamp and settled in with a book.

I keep my bedroom pretty dark and it's normally quiet but nothing like when there's a blackout. No reflection from the clock, no electric hum or the fridge cycling on and off. No bits of ambient light from outside. Very odd. Comforting and creepy at the same time. When I finally went to bed I quietly tried to fall asleep, tossed and turned and after a long time heard a kind of bump and realized that even with my eyes closed I could tell there was a light on - the light from my clock seemed that bright. The power was out for about an hour and a half and I have no idea whatsoever about the cause, or the extent of the outage.

When I get home tonight I have to reset all my clocks. And my televisions and vcrs. This couldn't have happened on Saturday night when I'll be resetting everything??