I often joke about our power company and its tendency to stop sending the juice if a dark cloud goes over the sun, but the reality is they are pretty reliable. Oh sure sometimes I will come home from work and find all the digital clocks blinking 12 but not really all that often. One memorable time the power was off for 12 hours on a weekend day. But this weekend it was a little over 2 hours.
Civilization as we know it ceased at about 8pm. It was in the middle of howling wind and a blinding snowstorm so I wasn’t surprised to be flung back into the dark ages. You may think I am exaggerating a little but that’s how it feels now a days when all the electrical gadgets don’t do anything. The laptop I use works fine on battery but the wireless connection needs the juice, so no internet. The tivo’d movie I was enjoying, pffft. No lights so the usual scramble for flashlights and batteries ensued.
The last time we went without power for that lengthy 12 hour stretch I swore I would buy a small generator. Just in case. It took a few years but I now have one. I diligently run it once a month (the manual calls this procedure exercising the unit) and keep it full of fresh gas.
Last night as it started to get chilly I thought about hiking down in the sub artic conditions to the garage and setting it up so we could run a space heater, maybe some lights. All I would have to is open the garage door….oh no, the damn door runs on the juice as well. There is another door but let’s just say because we don’t use it it’s not what you would describe as..what’s the word? Clear access…many things have migrated there and when you open the door they will all fall down on the car.
As I pondered our options I listened to the wind howling outside.
Is there any better feeling than being inside when Mother Nature is going on a temper tantrum outside? The silence in the absence of furnaces and refrigerator motors, TV and everything else was complete. The only sound was the wind chimes on the porch and the noise of the storm lashing against our little dark manmade cave.
The power came back on and in a way I was sorry. Our little brush with the elements was over.
Of course if the electric blanket hadn’t worked that night there would have been hell to pay.
