To borrow a line from one of Sienna’s books, today was pretty much a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Yesterday there were dangerously strong winds in our town, which knocked over a tree, which took out the power lines for about half the town at about 3pm.

By the time I got home, the house was chilly.  We lit the gas stove with a match and ate spaghetti by lantern light in our sweatshirts.  The house got progressively chillier, and I did storytime by flashlight and tucked Sienna in under 8 blankets.

Then I zoomed around the dark, chilly house and put out Sienna’s Valentine’s day treats.  Our groceries arrived (fresh direct is so convenient, except when it arrives during a power outage!) but given that our fridge was getting to be about the temperature of the house, our frozen foods chilled on the deck (ha!) and the refrigerated ones relaxed in the garage.  Good thing it is winter!

By the time I went to sleep it was 58 degrees in the house.  Around midnight our carbon monoxide detector went off, scaring the heck out of my portable heater-dog, who shook and whined the rest of the night (turned out to be low battery, luckily.  On the detector, not the dog).  Around 3am the power came back on, inspiring the printer to beep and boop and shoot out test pages.  We finally warmed up in the wee hours of the night, but I don’t think I ever slept.

We did have a great Valentine’s morning – Sienna loved her gifts and I’m pretty sure I deserve an award for this one: a charm bracelet with a photo of each dog she’s socialized.  (and side note, Valentine’s Day is one of the better holidays because parents get the credit rather than Santa or the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy)

I was exhausted all day, and there was more fallout from the power outage. Our dishwasher, which has been on its last legs, finally gave out.  So happy Valentine’s Day, we got each other a new dishwasher!  How romantic!

But as I thought about grumbling about the day, I had a better thought:  These are all regular problems that anyone in our town could be facing today.

Nothing rare about any of it.

And then I tucked Sienna into bed tonight and she sighed and smiled and said “Valentine’s Day is the BEST.  I wish EVERY day was Valentine’s day.”

Me too, Sienna…  Me too!

Rare disease day is February 28th – thanks to our friend Nick for making this adorable photo to help raise awareness of most days, when the problems we face are not-so-regular problems!