A candlelit Saturday night

"Electric" would absolutely be the wrong verb to describe my Saturday night, although there was something magical about weather-induced family time. While the "perfect storm," as the weather hallucinators dubbed it, didn't pack quite the punch they forecast, ice and wind were sufficient to knock out power throughout town and much of Iowa.

I'm not normally one to run to the grocery store whenever I'm told the sky is falling, but I did load up on certain necessities this time. While others were stocking up on milk and bread, I shopped for vodka, chips and DVDs.

We were halfway through "Barnyard" before I discovered the error of my ways. It takes electricity to run just about every household appliance -- including, ironically enough, gas powered ones. When the power went out for good around 6:30 p.m., I nearly had a panic attack.

It wasn't cold enough for worry, thankfully, but I soon realized how dependent I've become on television and the Internets. Even radio wasn't an option when I discovered my self-charging radio only worked as long as I was willing to crank the handle to charge it.

I called several hotels in a futile effort to find one with both electricity and vacancy as my wife lit more candles than I could count. If the hotels were without power, I reasoned unreasonably, the bars probably were too. So much for my anticipation of Rainn Wilson hosting "Saturday Night Live."

I had nowhere to run to, baby, no place to hide. So I settled in for an unplanned family night. The family wouldn't play Scrabble with me, so we agreed on Triple Yahtzee. My son won, even after I corrected his math, but I'm not competitive.

Then we moved to the living room and, for once, lived. We talked and talked. My kids, long since tired of my usual stories, demanded new ones. We all shared memories that evoked other memories. It was fun. It was like camping, without the bugs.

I was grateful to see the power restored about 1 a.m., though thankful to Mother Nature for giving us a family night to remember.