Last night, as I was packing like a crazed monkey on speed, a thunderstorm occurred. In Tampa Bay, this is a common occurrence. However, after one particularly bright flash of lightning, suddenly the lights in the house dimmed and began flickering, and the UPS beeped stridently.

My computer's monitor (not hooked into the battery-backup side of the UPS, since all three backup plugs are taken up by computers) went dark. A few blind keystrokes later and the computer was shut down. But the big problem: if more than one light was on, they'd dim and flicker alarmingly. And forget anything like air conditioning or the washing machine. (While it was meaningless since I couldn't use the computer or the TV, turning a light on or off would also reset the cable box and the cable modem. Weird.)

Packing is really hard when you've got only one light and a flashlight to work by. At least the way I pack, which entails an almost constant circulation from room to room in order to consolidate things and pack as efficiently as possible. After half an hour of brownout, I called the electric company. The guy answering the phone was unfamiliar with the term "brownout", if you can believe it.

A technician finally came by around 3 AM. I was still up, since I was determined to finish at least most of the tasks I had set for myself. He puttered around outside, shut off the power entirely for a while, turned it back on and eventually told me the problem was in the interior wiring.

Yet after he left, I tried the lights and everything was back to normal.