Thoughts from Crow Cottage (My Main Blog.)
crowbelle's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Power is Everything POWER IS EVERYTHING I went to bed 2 nights ago at 9 p.m. This is not unusual for me lately. I'm beat by that time of day and since TV was putting me to sleep anyway, I went up and climbed under my nice, cozy, warm duvet planning to drift off to sleep. Not getting to sleep immediately, I reached over and put on my bedside radio, and my headphones, and listened to some talk radio for a while - like until 11:30 -- when I was jarred from my thoughts by silence suddenly. And blackness! Because of modern technology, there are multiple tiny lights that are peeking thru the darkness of my bedroom all night long - the digital clock stares out at me with the current time, the innerds of the fax/printer/scanner shine up on the wall from some tiny light that never goes off, the red lights on my two surge protectors cast shadows up onto the ceiling, and then there's the green light on my digital camera holder that is always on. But all of a sudden, it was silent and black in my room - completely and utterly. The power had gone off. I lay there, pondering this dilemma. Sure, it will come back on momentarily, won't it? It usually does. Sometimes within a few seconds of going off, it will flicker back on... but no, not this night. It stayed off. There was no storm raging outside, not even any rain. Wonder what caused the power outage? After 15 minutes of this wondering, I found my flashlight and snuck downstairs to the phone (which luckily works even without power) and found the number to call at The Electric Co. for power outage reports. I called and waited a bit on hold, and then was told that a few others had called from my area so they knew about it. I felt a lot better - that they knew - so I made my way back up to my warm bed and snuggled under the duvet again. But that's when the gremlins started firing off in my brain. I started worrying about what my day would be like IF the power did not come back soon. I had done some of my typing (on Sunday) but not all of it, and I had not put the incomplete file yet on a diskette, so without power there was no way I could transfer my work to the office. I'd probably have to go TO the office and use their equipment, which I don't particularly like to do - it's just different from mine - and besides, they don't have all the autotexts saved up like I do. If I had to type my work at the office, it was not going to be a fun day. Then I remembered about the refrigerator/freezer. That stuff might melt and/or go bad. My in-laws had left their freezer door ajar the other night and had to discard most of what was in it. I have a side-by-side fridge/freezer, and there's a lot of frozen food in there - if I lose it, it's going to cost me some serious dollars to replace! I don't have serious dollars floating around right now, and that would not be a good thing. This worrying went on wholeheartedly until around 3 a.m. when - still in the dark - I got antsy and came downstairs again and called The Electric Co. for an update. They had to replace a transformer and the estimated time of power-on was 5 a.m. OK. That's good news. I think. But what if they're wrong? I really needed to wash (and dry) my hair that next day, bad. Our heat is controlled by electricity, as is our water heater, as is my teapot and oven and stove, and all things involving the kitchen. If I couldn't heat up my water in the morning, I would have no cup of coffee, and without that crucial cuppa, I'd get that darn caffeine-withdrawal headache that lasts 2 days - for sure! That on top of having to do my remaining work at the office, without my autotexts... well, this was becoming much more than I could handle. So there was no sleep for me that entire night. My radio works on a plug into the wall or on batteries, so I pulled out the plug and let it run on its batteries for a little while, just to have some contact with the outside world. Talk radio doesn't care about my power outage though. They are all preprogrammed to chat about nonsensical subject matters, so I unplugged from that and just lay there - waiting for there to be tiny lights again in my room. I waited another 2 1/2 hours, and then, at 5:36 a.m. (according to my digital clock) the power sprang back to life, all the little lights blinked back at me, and life as I knew it was back to normal. All before I got up. But I'd not had even a moment's sleep all that night. So I got up and began my day. Got the computer going up to speed, saved my files to the diskette right away, in case the Electricity Gods decided to pull my power away again, and had my hot cuppa coffee, staving off the withdrawal headache for the day. We had planned to go to the movies at 5 p.m. yesterday so I had to hustle and get everything done and be ready to leave here around 4:30...which we did. We had to eat late when we got home, and by 9 p.m. last night, after no sleep since two days ago, I was ready for my bed. And I did sleep well last night. It's scary how dependent we are on the power. I don't know if I could go on without it, and I don't know how all the people who lose it for days, weeks, or months at a time can get thru their lives. I am spoiled, I suppose...but the power is everything to me. Cheers to the Power that Be's, Bex 2:15 pm - 12 December 2006 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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