Note: I originally wrote this on February 27, 2007 but never posted it.

About a month ago, when I was still at Target, an older gentleman asked me if we carried any phones that don’t need electricity. “I just want a normal corded phone that plugs into the phone jack without any lights or answering machine or anything,” he said. “I want to still be able to use it if the power goes out.”

“I’m sure we do,” I told him, and escorted him over to the phone aisle to help him find one. But after three minutes of looking at every single phone we had, I had to conclude that we didn’t carry any, and referred him to Radio Shack or Best Buy.

I hope he was able to find one. This past weekend, all of Hudson and a good portion of Cedar Falls and Waterloo lost power for over 24 hours, and only the people with those old-fashioned beige phones were able to call anyone.

The same thing happened last May when a falling tree snapped the main power line near the entrance to my neighborhood. We were without electricity for over two days, and it was so strange to be able to read a book by the light of a Coleman lantern without the distractions of wondering how my eBay auction was going or whether anyone had emailed me. For two days, none of it mattered.

And yet, when the line was repaired and the power came back on, I immediately got online to download the Lost Season 2 finale that I had missed… and from then on, it was back to life as normal.

All this is just to say that sometimes I think life would be a lot more enjoyable if it were like the beige phones: less complicated, without all the lights and LCD displays and speed dials that demand my attention and keep me from doing what I really want to do.

We’re supposed to get another storm this afternoon, and they’re saying it may be as bad as the one from last weekend. I want the power to go out again, but I want it to go out on my own terms. Lost is on tonight…