With over 600,000 British expatriates living in the U.S., it was inevitable that someday I would bring you this exciting news update:
Six Degrees of Separation Between
Steven James Keathley
and
William and Catherine,
The New Duke & Duchess of Cambridge
1. I have a Welsh Corgi. 2. My Corgi's vet is also the vet of the niece of the Royal Corgi Breeder. 3. In an unfortunate incident, nine Royal Corgis pulled too hard on their leashes, dragged Paul Burrell, personal footman at that time to Queen Elizabeth II, down the stairs and knocked him unconscious. 4. Paul Burrell went on to become the butler of Diana, Princess of Wales. 5. Princess Diana was the mother of Prince William. 6. Prince William married Kate Middleton on April 29, 2011.
The storms knocked out the power in my neighborhood for 26 hours. A very long 26 hours indeed.
It was like the Stone Age. No TV. No computer. No Internet.
No lights. No matter how many times you hit the light switches out of habit, uh-uh, they're not coming on.
Fortunately I had a couple of camping lanterns. So I got my flashlight, and went looking for the batteries for the lanterns.
Then I had light, but nothing to read. I've got some paperback books somewhere. Couldn't find them. I moved the cheese from the fridge to the freezer. (Gotta save the cheese.)
I remembered my cell phone. Smart phones! The world in the palm of your hand! The battery was running low, so I braved the storm long enough to use the car recharger. That bought me enough time to check the news headlines ("Winter Storm Knocks Out Power!" No kidding?).
When the power finally came back on, I celebrated by making toast. Ahh, the things we take for granted.
I'm a Southern California artist specializing in large, colorful abstract impasto paintings. My style is traditional Impressionism with overtones of classical American folk art.