The power went out in my neighborhood a few years ago. It happened on a hot summer day. I wanted to call the power company to report the problem, but my parents wouldn't let me. They said if I even went near the phone, they would ground me for a week. (And why can't I call?) What's even worse is that they wouldn't let me go to a relatives' place, or even get a motel room with my own money. ("If you do that, then you're weak", they said. "That's not weak, that's smart", I thought.) They justified this with the logic that is they can tolerate not having power, I also have to. I could never understand why I had to suffer just because my parents chose to stay home and suffer, even though they had the option of going somewhere else that night. So now, I hate power outages with a passion, not because of the darkness (although it sucks), but because of the way they tear my family apart.