Lights Out

My wife, Jan, loves candles. We have a whole drawer in the kitchen devoted to them- and not a small drawer either. It used to be that you only brought out the candles for special occasions like Thanksgiving or Christmas.They were white or maybe  red or green; holiday colors.  Sometimes during thunder storms back in Ohio they made an appearance if a tree blew a line down somewhere. Everyone had a few candles on hand for emergencies. Last week the power went out in town, and the whole city was thrust into darkness. It's kind of eerie- no street lamps or anything. On the one hand it's kind of neat if the stars are out- you can really see them unimpeded by the town lights. On the other hand, it just so happened that it was Thursday evening, the only night that I really care to watch TV. My two favorite shows were on, both of which I missed. The power was out for over four hours and since we don't  have an alternate source of heat, aside from Rigby the dog, it got a little chilly in the house. Surprisingly it didn't get as cold as I expected it to though. Jan waltzed over to the candle drawer and proceeded to light mass quantities of the waxy gems. Not only were we able to see enough to keep from tripping over slippers and other paraphernalia that had been left on the floor, but the combined heat of all the candles actually kept the room temp from falling below 59degrees. I know that doesn't sound exactly toasty, but considering how cold it was outside, it was ok. As you can see, candles now come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. She has some that look like apples, some that are round, square, tapered and squat in a multitude of colors. We may even have a candle that you light and hold over your ear to melt ear wax- I'm not kidding. Knowing my luck I would drip the candle wax into my ear canal and have to go to the hospital and explain how it got there. The only person in recorded history with second degree burns on his eardrum. I'm sure the doctor would look at me like I was kid who shoved frozen peas up my nose or something. Nowadays there seems to be a market for like designer candles or some such thing. They aren't cheap. At one time if you were invited to a Christmas get together you might run down to the Dollar Store and grab up something green or red in a glass with a sticker on the bottom that declared the scent was Holley or Evergreen or some other exotic smell. Now candles are like a work of art and are priced accordingly. They have scents like Mountain Blueberry or Sandalwood or Ocean Delight. I'd kind like to buy a candle with a name like Ocean Delight. I like the smell of fish- when it's fresh that is. It probably wouldn't make for a very romantic dinner if you were to light a candle that smelled like a dead Carp though. My daughter Jen has apparently taken after her mom in her love for candles. A family friend drove past her house the night the lights went out and declared it to be lit up like the Vegas strip. No doubt it was plenty warm in there. In any event, candles have come a long way since the days when a string was dipped in tallow and left to harden. If the power goes out again, I hope you  have a few standing by. If you don't, you know where you can borrow some.