Lights Out!

This past weekend we had my son’s sixth birthday parties, yes parties, as in two.  We had a “kid’s party” where he had all his friends from school and then a family/adult party for those that really don’t have kids or have kids that are too old to enjoy that venue.  I really didn’t want to have two different parties but because of where we were having the “kids” one and the cost involved it was easier to just separate the parties.  Not easier for us but easier for everyone else and more cost effective for me.

Before I get into my major issue with the day I wanted to first say where did the last six years go?  Seriously, I can’t believe my son’s six.  I still remember the first day we brought him home from the hospital and other milestones that don’t seem all that long ago.  But it has been.  It really does go by fast and I’m alright with that.  While the early stuff is important and cool, my son is way more “fun” right now.  We can wrestle around, watch movies, play video games, play sports and play with Nerf guns!  Maybe it’s me but the first few years of a child’s life is more for the mommies than it is for the dads.  He’s a person now and not only can communicate, he can think for himself and participate in relationships that are more involved that just cuddling and changing him.

The only issue we had with the day was the first party for the kid’s.  We had it at a place called Nomad’s in South Windsor, CT.  This place has arcade games, laser tag, bounce houses, bumper cars, small amusement park rides, mini-golf and an indoor play area for children.  It’s like a more grown up Chuck E. Cheese’s.  About Fifteen minutes into our party the entire establishment lost power.  The whole industrial park we were in lost power for some reason that was really never explained to us.  We heard everything from car accident to transformer being faulty.  Whatever the case, the power is out and the emergency lights are on.  Now what?  We have 20 kids, 30 parents and no electricity.  No food, no fun, what do we do?

I do have to give praise to the staff of Nomad’s.  They communicated what was going on (though each one had a different “theory” of why they didn’t have lights) and they did try and keep the kid’s entertained.  They played group games with the children as they tried to figure out if they were going to get the lights back on.  When it was determined they were going to have to close the place, they allowed us to at least have cake and let my son open his presents.

Now, maybe it’s me but when you have a business that solely relies on electricity, I would think you would invest in a back-up generator or two, or three or whatever it takes to run your business just in case you have an issue like this.  I don’t know the whole deal with generators but my brother in law has one that will run his entire house for up to a week if they should lose power.  If they have those available to consumers, they must make ones for commercial use.  What about ones for grocery stores and other place with perishable items?  If I owned an establishment like this I would definitely invest in a bunch of generators.

It didn’t matter in the end I guess.  The kid’s had a blast anyway running around like crazy people in the dark place, they had their cake and my son received his presents.  He really wanted to do laser tag so we’ll bring him back with some friends and let him do that.  I also saved about 600 bucks so that’s not bad either...