My most favorite reading place as a child was under the dining room table. My parents bought a ninety-year-old house when I was eight, just after my father left the military. It was the fixer-upper of which they had always dreamed. One thing about living on the southeastern coast of the US, the summers are hot and humid. In a ninety-year-old fixer-upper there is no central air. Window units in those days were large and expensive. We couldn’t afford to put them in every room in the house. We had one for the downstairs that cooled the living and dining rooms and two upstairs for my parents’ bedroom and my father’s computer room.
My brother and I slept in the living and dining rooms for the summers. My brother got the room with the television. I got the one directly under the air conditioner. As an asthmatic, I loved the chilled air, and the noise drowned out the television so I could read.
When hurricane season hit I still slept and read under the dining room table. I have fond memories of reading a fantasy adventure story with rain lashing against the taped windows, the storm providing excellent sound effects for my imagination.
To this day, I look forward to snuggling up with a book during a storm. These days I’m just as likely to be writing as I am reading, and I’m content to work at the table rather than under it.
We are likely to lose power in the next day or so. The talking weather-heads say that the power outages could last for days. If that’s the case, I expect to make substantial progress on the sequel to Creatures of the Moon, though my children and husband may go through gadget withdrawal.
May all of you weather the storms in your lives, be they actual or metaphorical, and come out the other side whole.
. Win-win. 
