The Barbarian Way

Yep.

Got tired of fast-food...

...which has become the default meals of late because of our fast-lane lives.

I knew Tracy had to drive Shelby to ballet lessons in Fort Worth. Her day and all. So I stopped by the grocery store for something to grill for Kelsey and I. I chose the turkey breast in a lemon-garlic marinade. Salad on the docket, too. As was chicken noodle soup. A choice of sweet tea or peach tea.

Because Kelsey's extracurricular activity kept her a couple of hours after school I decided to wait until after I picked her up to start everything. Before I could fire up the grill I had to search for the red butane starter we use on fires and grills. It got hung up in burning ribbon edges of ballet shoes to keep them from fraying. I would never have guessed that so I called Tracy. She was aware of the new location of said red butane starter.

Anyway, it started to rain.

The newscaster broke in to tell us that a powerful storm was in our town. Winds gusting to 70 miles an hour.

Rain starts to really fall hard. I tell Kelsey I'd wait about 10 minutes until this blew over.

Then the power flickered. Then it went out.

After about 20 minutes the rain let up and I fired up the grill. Then it got dark in the house, so Kelsey and I used said red butane starter to light about 15 candles in two rooms.

I slow-grilled the turkey breast.
I fixed the salads.
I heated up the soup on the grill.
No television.
No internet.
No radio.
Only an occasional text message kept us in contact with the outside world for the next hour and a half or so.
Just me and my daughter and more food than we could eat alone.
I was all prepped to go Abe Lincoln and read by candlelight, too.

The power returned at about 9PM.

I wished it'd waited about another hour.