This really happened tonight. My wife called me just as I was leaving work and let me know that a huge storm had just passed over our town and was quickly working its way east towards Des Moines. She advised me to stop and get indoors. So, what better stop could there be but a nearby Toys R Us? Am I right?

I checked out some video games for a while, and then headed into the action figures. I found myself something I have been trying to get a hold of for quite some time, and then picked up a couple toys for the boys. Just as I pulled a toy Lightning McQueen off the shelf, the lights went out.

Cell phones around the store lit up pretty quickly. But the eerie thing was that I was close to a particularly creepy set of glow-in-the-dark bears. They emanated a ghoulish luminance, and it freaked me out. I blindly stumbled towards the growing chorus of screaming children to find my way out of the section I was in.

The lights were only out for a few minutes, but it seemed like a lifetime as I waited patiently for their power and then their register systems to all finally come back online.

Quite the eventful evening for a quiet Iowa city.