Remember when I said that if I lost power again, I'd be back to bitch and moan?

Well, the unthinkable happened.

No, my entire family wasn't killed in an auto accident. No, I didn't lose my first-born son to an unjust war. And, no, I didn't kill my beautiful, blonde wife and then declare that I'd spend the rest of my days looking for the "real" killer.

The unthinkable in this case is that either a high-tree trimmer or a representative of Cox Communications worked to remove tree branches away from a line -- either cable or electric -- and it brought much of the rest of the tree down, popping a transformer and ridding several blocks in Norman, Okla., of electricity.

Good times.

The tree in question is in a neighbor's yard, but the branches overhanged my driveway. Both homes in question are owned by the same guy, our landlord. A pole saw is still in the tree, but none of my neighbors nor I saw any evidence of a corpse below. We could only be so lucky.

I kid because, at this point, I'm mad but I'm not frustrated, if that makes sense.

Sitting in the comfort of my friends' home, where I essentially have a room of my own, I consider myself lucky beyond anything a lottery win could afford me. Of course, my cat is pissed, but I'm merely inconvenienced.

I don't have young kids. I am not caring for a relative who needs electricity-powered oxygen. I didn't even have time to restock my fridge with food I'd have to throw out all over again. Nobody died. The house doesn't seem to be damaged. My car wasn't scratched considering I was at work. I ate a hearty meal consisting of a Sonic extra-long chili coney and had some tots with a Vanilla Diet Coke.

I'm beating my first-place brother in our fantasy football semi-finals this week with a team I have managed no better than Ken Lay did Enron.

Who am I to complain?

I called OG&E, and they took note that the lines were down, although they had received similar reports from every neighbor from Flood Avenue to Berry Road. They had a guy out there working on it that night, although as one of my neighbors put it: "You can't mess with a lineman. They have you by the ass."

I called the landlord to tell him the line was down and that a pole saw was in the tree and that he ought to call his tree-trimmer person to find out what in the hell happened. He had no idea that any trimmer would be out there today, and that combined with the lack of evidence that anybody besides Cox was out at the house makes me think maybe our grand digital cable provider is to blame.

Long story short, sometimes you just have to roll with the flow and be thankful for what you have -- great friends and a terrific story to tell for years to come. My hope is that I can get to the house in time on Tuesday to document the damage via camera and video. A friend has already suggested that if the landlord's tree-trimmer is to blame that I deduct the number of days without power from my rent; however, I don't think that's a viable, legal option. I'm not even sure that's a reasonable ethical expectation.

Besides, I've got a great deal on that little house, and the landlord's guys busted tail to cut up the damaged trees last week and set them by the curb. On the other hand, unless that was a cable wire dangling from the tree, I will be without power for up to the next couple of weeks, I'm told.

Perhaps it will only be a couple of days.

Either way, outside of feeling bad for my cat there in that dark house, I'm perfectly at peace with Round 2 of my electrical nightmare. Why stress over what you can't control?