We have power!!! (In one sense of the word.)

So this week is better, in a big way... We got power back Sunday evening! After 12 days without it and 10 days without water, I sort of felt like a mole crawling out of my hole. (Or a druggie, awaking from a clouded stupor.) Imagine my surprise when I could walk from room to room and not have to bring my own source of light! Or clean the bathroom without worrying if I'd have enough water to flush the toilet AND clean residue gunk off my hands! It was amazing. You should have been there when the toilet was cleaning and sparkling... I felt a little emotional...
But alas, life likes to hand out trade-offs, so this week I'm sick. (Last weekend Aiden was sick with strep but he got antibiotics so that doesn't count anymore.) And I have tons of school work. This week and next week I have 2 tests, a quiz, 2 assignments and 2 projects due. This is all for 2 online classes! Luckily I like the subject matter, but still.
Another thing came up this week that has me perplexed. My Organizational Behavior course text stated that it should almost be a requirement that, for a manager to be effective, he or she should have a need for power (defined as the need to make others behave in a way in which they would not have behaved otherwise). Ok... I've never had a high power motive (their words), so what does that mean for my future in business? I won't be effective unless I have some insatiable urge to control others? I'm guessing I'll have to interpret power in my own way - perhaps the need to make other behave better than they normally would? But it just seems wrong, from the examples I've seen in life, to feel a need to manipulate others to behave differently that what comes natural to them.

Sigh. I have a lot to learn in business.

I love the predictable.

So the past week has been interesting.

We've showered in three different places - none of which were our own home. We've stayed warm with a mini fireplace, a friend's wood stove and a generator-powered furnace. Getting ready in the morning involved packing clothes to take a shower somewhere else in the evening and grabbing the cooler full of food that we placed outside over night but have to bring with us to work during the day to refrigerate.

Our living room is packed full of the contents of our storage building which is now a ball of tinfoil. The carpet and kitchen floor is thick with kitty litter that allowed us to walk safely on the porch but turned into a huge mess. Our dining room holds the contents of our second living room, such as our 60" television, the stand and all its contents when we thought a tree was going to go through our roof.

I won't even go into the toilets which can't be flushed unless we haul enough water home to fill the tank first...

Yea. I'm ready for our power to come back on. I'm ready for the typical. I'm ready for my predictable life to return!