Missing Electricity

There were some wicked storms that blew through here on Friday: winds that blew trees sideways, and in many cases, toppled them over. 60-80 year old trees, we're talkin'. Rain....coupled with big fat blizzard-like snowflakes (at the same time).

Around noon on Friday, I heard 3 very loud KABOOM's. They didn't sound as though they were close, based on the subsequent echoes....but the earth (and my house) shook with reverb.

Then, the power went out.

And stayed out.

Until around 1 pm yesterday.

Apparently, 69K people were without power. Our little nook of this county was hit particularly hard.

In an instant, the house was silent. Like - ear-ringing silence. It was amazing. We actually saw many neighbors out and about in the neighborhood - which was a good thing. Neighbors out here in the burbs tend to stay indoors, and I guess with no tv or computers or much of anything to distract them inside, they ventured out.

It didn't really impact us - because we tend to be outside during the weekend anyhow, working on house or garden stuff, walking the dogs, etc. And Beck is way into emergency preparedness, so we are well-equipped with flashlights, candles, even a battery operated radio. She tends to view these sorts of occurrences as an adventure. Although being without her beloved television (TV-Land, Discovery, History....she LOVES TV!) was torturous.

It DID result in a fridge full of food (mostly the stuff in the freezer) thawing out. That sucked. But you know, our budget has been kind of tight here these past couple months, and we don't tend to stock up like we used to - so it wasn't as full as it would have been.

It DID cause me to quit work early on Friday because my laptop battery fizzled after a couple hours.

It DID make it impossible to get our cars out of the garage, because we have a really heavy wood garage door and springs that don't work so good, so our cars really are trapped in the garage when something like this happens.

This was, I think, the biggest impact...on both Friday evening and Saturday morning.

I called my friend, Jillian, to tell her about the outage and my garage door situation. Without hesitation, she volunteered to come pick me up for our evening out. We had been looking forward to dinner at White Castle (of all places! Silvija picked, and neither Jillian nor I had ever been) and then to see Sex in the City. It was a no-brainer for her - "I'll come pick you up, no problem." And then, we matter-of-factly worked out the logistics for when she'd need to pick me up so we could be back south for our dinner engagement.

A couple of things: Not only was this out of her way on a normal day, AND it was rush hour (those two things alone were HUGE!)....but traffic lights were not working (and a HUGE and old and very stately maple tree was halved by the wind, which closed one road entirely). This made the trip very complicated.

I had just been reading a book on Buddhism (It's Easier Than you Think, by Boorstein) and was very much experimenting with letting go of suffering and accepting what was. Jillian, however, was experiencing stress, because (not only did TRAFFUCK SUCK) but we were most definitely going to be late to meet Silvija at White Castle.

Jillian has the must-be-on-time-or-better-yet-early gene (you know, the one I lack - but I'm trying so hard to be better...I want to point out that was ready and waiting outside on my bench for Jillian BEFORE our designated pick-up time....that's saying something. I was so proud! Of course, I had no power for primping, so my getting-ready routine was abbreviated...but still....). Her chief concerns were: Silvija would think we stood her up; or we got the wrong White Castle location (because goddess forbid, there are multiple hideously white castles around, dotting our suburban landscape); maybe Silvija wouldn't even be there by the time we arrived; maybe we would not get to the theatre in time for good seats (since this was the opening night and the majority of tickets were already sold in advance!).....she (Jillian) has this genuine concern and consideration for others.

Me? I was irritated by the traffuck. (Thank you, Wen, for the eloquent term - it is so appropriate) I had let go of being on time to White Castle. We were gonna be late, and I just tried not to stress about that. For the first time, EVER, Jillian was late in picking me up - on account of the traffuck. On a perfect day, it isn't likely that we would have ever made it to White Castle on time; well, maybe if we were birds and could fly a very direct route. And, as we know, this day was less than perfect from a commuting standpoint. It just wasn't gonna happen.

But here's what was cool about it: Jillian, Beck and I each viewed the thing differently and brought a different sensibility to it. Becky pretended she was on a reality show about pioneers, Jillian remained calm (though stressed) and drove safely, skillfully, and quickly. I navigated so we could route ourselves away from roads that had traffic signals, and I continuously tried to reach White Castle on my cell phone (you know, so I could ask the White Castle employee to find the blonde lady and tell her we were on our way? Right. It made sense to me at the time). We were only 15 minutes late - which was miraculous.

White Castle was....different. I was sliding before the movie even started. Nice.

Then, I was unable to go to Pilates yesterday morning, which was a huge deal for me. I know I could have called Jillian to, once again, go way out of her way to pick me up (we're in the same class)....and she totally would have done it, once again, without a second's hesitation. But I didn't know if the traffic lights were working yet (I was betting they weren't), and I just couldn't ask her to make that horrendous trip again.

So, I called Faith at 730 with the heads-up that I didn't have power and likely wasn't going to be able to make it. My Saturday morning practice is a highlight for me, I look forward to it all week. But, one doesn't need electricity to do roll-ups or 100's, so I made-believe that I was there. It wasn't the same.

We couldn't make coffee. This was very bad; almost as disappointing as missing Pilates. We enjoy our coffee in the morning. Not a lot, just a cup. We were tempted to fire up the camping stove and make coffee on the deck.

Just after noon Saturday, the house shuddered as the electricity came back on, the familiar hum of the fridge and air filters whirring again. Clocks all blinking 12. It's amazing how, even when there's nothing "on" in the house, it's still noisy. Huge contrast.

But all in all, aside from missing the connectivity of a computer....the garage situation was the biggest deal. It's one we're going to address once we need to replace the garage door. I'm thinking we won't get another wood door next time.

until next time,
a