September 2006

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Well, that was fun.

We had a long power outage Wednesday. It started a few minutes after 2:15 p.m., and ended in the early hours of Thursday morning. I don't know the cause, but I'm fairly sure it was a blown something-or-other in the complex, since the neighbors across the parking lot still had power.

I had already planned to run an errand, so I proceeded to do just that, changing one thing on my shopping list to make sure I could have dinner without cooking if need be. That, as it turned out, was one of the smartest things I did all day.

I got home from said errand and sat down in the living rom. I decided to call the power company's outage report number, having heard a long time ago that the more people who call the better. The automated voice told me we'd have power by 5:30 p.m. (I called around 4:15).

So I did the crossword puzzle in the campus newspaper, and finished reading it. Then I looked around the living room and decided some housework was in order. Two bags of trash later, there is still some work to be done in terms of getting rid of old stuff, but I made an excellent dent, if I do say so myself.

At that point, I decided eating dinner was a good thing, so I did just that. I would have dined by candlelight, but it was still light enough outside that I went for the practical of saving the candles.

Dinner over, and well past 5:30, I called the outage line again, to hear that the estimated return of service had been bumped to 7:30. Hey, at least the company was still planning to have service for us the same day!

What to do? Well, there was the crossword (and some good reading) in the latest alternative newspaper, so I took advantage. Then I decided it was dark enough to light a candle and pick up a book.

As you've probably guessed, 7:30 came and went. While I was settling down for the evening, I made sure my flashlights were within reach, put a new battery in the alarm clock I use for backup, and found my place in the book I'm reading.

And darkness came. I know better than to let myself go to sleep by candlelight, so when I lit the candle to read by its light, I made sure I was sitting upright. A while later I decided to call the outage line again, to find that they were now calling for 11:00 p.m.

Finally tired of sitting up to read, I exchanged candle for flashlight and curled up. I finally got drowsy, so the flashlight got turned off and I dozed off to sleep.

In the wee small hours of Thursday, when the power came back on, the lamp in my bedroom woke me by shining in my face. It took me a few seconds to realize this meant the power was indeed back on, but once that sunk in I got up.

As I write this, it's early. I'm not sure what the day will bring, but at least if it brings company, the living room is cleaner.