The power at the house went out about 5 a.m. with no clear reason why or answers on when it would be back. After an hour or so, I left to get ice in town, but that was just the start to the morning's adventures.

Losing the cool on what you have in the refrigerator and freezer is not something to take lightly right now. Our part of Georgia is considered the worst, if not the worst, per-capita community-sustained transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic. Shelter in place is a good order to follow as you can. As I got closer to town that morning, I saw the power outage was not widespread. A good thing.

When I returned home with the ice in the cooler, the sun was coming up. We could see well throughout the house – too well.

I was in the other room. My wife screamed like she was being attacked by a wolf. I ran in the room and dang near broke my toe on the leg of the couch.

A mouse had run across the bricks of the fireplace. It sprinted back across the bricks. She screamed so loud again I ducked.

“Get that thing and get it now,” she said. It was fast and a little ol’ thing. A cat couldn’t have caught it.

I went out to the shed and got my son's CO2 pistol loaded with plastic pellets. Figured I might stun the mouse and trap it with something. A shotgun blast in the house was the last thing I needed to bring to the party. I heard her scream again from outside. I also figured if the wife screamed again, I'd stun her once on the backend with a pellet. You know I didn't do that because I'm writing this and not taking up precious space at the local hospital.

I started my mission for the mouse, knowing it was futile. I was on my belly looking under things. I saw it about 10 feet away under a cabinet in the hallway. I fired. It moved a bit and stayed still.

I went over to retrieve and saw I’d hit the tip of the electrical plug unplugged from the lamp on top of the cabinet. It looked like a tiny mouse from 10 feet away. Got it pretty good. Bent a prong. I thought about telling the wife the mouse was done. But I didn’t. Figured if she saw the real mouse again, she'd proclaim an infestation. Been a few days. I haven't seen the mouse since. Probably died of a heart attack after the wife's last scream, or decided this place was too crazy to haunt and left on its own. It is now rumored we are adopting a cat. Think I'd rather deal with the mice.

The power came back on about four hours later. Many thanks to the linemen who, like many others, keep us powered and here's to the little things that keep life interesting.