I woke up just before 4 this morning and it was so dark and so quiet.  It took me a little while to figure out why.  There were no little electric lights glowing fro the smoke alarm and the telephone.  And the clock at the side of our bed wasn't displaying big red numbers telling me what time it was.  The power was off again so I got up and went into the kitchen and found Sheila's cell phone to see the time.  The power had been off last night for almost an hour and I figured that it would come on again soon.  I sat up and pondered on my thoughts from the conference sessions from yesterday and I wanted to hear the microwave in the kitchen beep when the power came back on.  It didn't happen so after 15 or 20 minutes I went back to bed.  It had snowed a lot during the night and the waterfall wasn't working and it was getting a little cold so I snuggled up and figured that I would doze and wake up again after a while and the power would be back on.  It was almost another 4 hours before I heard the beep and saw the glowing lights and the flashing 12:00 on the clock.  I checked her cell phone and it was 8 am.  Then I heard the sound of the waterfall and of the warm air being blown into the bedroom and the world was right with me again.  I didn't have to get up so I didn't.
After a while I did get up and shower and then Sheila fixed ham and eggs for breakfast.  By then conference was on again so we sat and watched.  And I was nourished just as I had been yesterday.  This old tough guy was softened by the conference messages and the singing, but the filler stuff that was on channel and BYU TV during the two hour break really affected me.  I fond myself with tears in my eyes several times as I watched stories about members of the church and events of special things in different parts of the world.  I did pretty well on my goal to watch all ten hours of conference, but I did not hit perfection.  I did doze for maybe 5 minutes of Elder Bednar's talk and I messed maybe 2 minutes of another when I went outside i the snow and washed out the skimmer in the pump area of the waterfall.  We didn't have to wait too long after the session ended for the Porters to arrive.  Then the Rosbachs got there and finally the Jensens got there as we were about to eat.  Hawaiian haystacks were the meal of the day and seemed to be enjoyed by all.  After wards there was a lot of scheduling going on and then we had a Family Home Evening lesson from Zach and Linzi and Sharon.  The rest of the evening found the 'Bed-Lam-ites' running through the house, the adults discussing important gospel questions and the pantry continual being raided.  I personally had one of my most enjoyable evenings in a long time  Usually I am a bit of a party pooper, but tonight I was really involved.  The time passed quickly and soon it was time to pack 'em up and head 'em out.  (That did take some time.)  And the last image in my mind was of Sherri and Russ in the middle row of seats in their van with Cortney in the driver's seat and Nicholas in the passenger seat.  The other two vehicles hurried to be off and away before Cortney got onto the road. 

May 23rd is the date of Nicholas' high school graduation.  Boy, is it ever beginning to happen way too fast for me!