Painful side effect of yesterday’s power outage: My back is in massive pain thanks to sitting on the floor all evening to play board games by candlelight (won Monopoly handily, lost Operation due to impossible “writer’s cramp” piece — the irony). Damn you PG&E!

Today the power went out… for about 10 hours. Why does this happen only on days I’m staying at home all day… and the day after I go to the grocery store (laden with full-sodium bacon, thank you)? It was amazing how few homes were affected. Really just a few blocks, centered on our house. But the worst is how PG&E would taunt me — turning the power on just long enough to blow out all the candles and reset all the clocks, only to snatch it back from my grasp and shut down again. Cursed at birth!