A storm just thundered through the Mirna valley. I was washing some dishes in the kitchen when the power was briefly cut just after a loud thunderclap. I knew my desktop computer in the study upstairs would go dead, but I expected it to come alive as soon as I would press the power button behind the screen. And this is what I did as soon as I came to the study. But the computer remained mum no matter how hard I pressed the button. I unplugged the computer from the nearby socket in the wall, and then I plugged it back again. When I pressed again the power button, nothing happened. It did not take me long to start panicking. The last time I saved the main files from the desktop was three or four days ago. Much has happened in the meanwhile. My hands shaking a bit, I unplugged the computer again, but then I removed the socket surge protector that actually plugs into the wall. Holding the surge protector in the other hand, I inserted the bare plug into the socket in the wall. Ever so gingerly, I pressed the power button one more time. And the desktop computer came alive at last. After a sigh of relief, I went to the pantry downstairs and searched for another socket surge protector. I found only one left on the shelf, where there used to be a whole pile of them a few years ago. Before I tossed the old protector into the garbage bin in the kitchen, I felt like kissing it. It saved my precious computer from a deadly surge. And then I thought of tourists who were passing by my house and laughing at repeated thunderclaps. Coming to Istria without a socket surge protector is no less than lunacy. I hope every tourist guide offers some guidance for the innocent about the fitful power supply on the peninsula. And fitful is the word.