It was so loud. The storm rattled the roof so much I was picturing the repairs as I opened my eyes. The rain whipped against the windows. It was not yet light out, so the room was dim. And one of the first things I noticed was that the numbers of the alarm clock were dark.

As the rain slowed to a stop, I noticed the usual background noises of the house were absent. The power was out.

With the ongoing pandemic, I wonder how long the power outage would last. Usually the power is out for minutes or hours. But this could be longer.

The house is silent as I search. All the CDs are in the garage, and We can’t play records without power. We got rid of the radios because their reception was horrible, it was better to just to stream NPR online.

But I found what I was looking for in the third drawer from the bottom. It seemed like a silly gift at the time, but the hand cranked radio was finally going to have its moment.