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In the Dark (31 hours and counting...)
Aug. 15th, 2005 11:05 amSaturday afternoon about 4 o'clock, an awesome thunderstorm passed
through Manchester. We listened to the wind, rain, and storm sirens from
our comfy snuggle in the Bed of Ginormitude. It knocked down two large
trees in our yard--broke them off about thirty feet up, or half their
height--and left a vast quantity of smaller branches and leaf clusters
littering the grass and deck. It also knocked out our electricity, and
we have spent the ensuing afternoon, night, day, and night in the dark.
Initially, the girl at Ameren said the predicted return of power was
2:30 am Sunday. She also said, though, that she didn't think they'd make
that. Now, they're not even making predictions anymore. I did hear a
news item stating "sometime Tuesday".
I'm glad we didn't get around to the grocery shopping Saturday morning.
It's going to be bad enough losing what we did have in the fridges and
freezers (though I continue to hope that the Policy of Non-Opening will
keep at least some of our frozen goods edible).
Life in the dark is a strange thing. In not much more than a century,
people (Americans anyway) have come to be so dependent on electricity
that its temporary loss leaves us consternated. We can't cook dinner
because our stove is electric. We grouse continually about the humidity
because our a/c isn't running to dry the air. It's not even all that
hot! But we don't know what to do with ourselves. We've kept farmers'
hours the last couple days, going to bed soon after the sun, and getting
up with the light. There's few things we can think of to do after dark
that don't require stronger illumination than the candles and oil lamp
can provide. Even playing cards, which we tried on Saturday night,
caused eyestrain.
I find myself thinking stupid things. Yesterday, I thought, "Well, the
laptop ought to be fully charged, it was plugged in all of Friday
night...I could get on the Internet....Oh, duh, the cable modem needs
electricity." Yes, I could have hauled it to Starbucks or St. Louis
Bread, but really. I'm not *that* addicted! Really!
through Manchester. We listened to the wind, rain, and storm sirens from
our comfy snuggle in the Bed of Ginormitude. It knocked down two large
trees in our yard--broke them off about thirty feet up, or half their
height--and left a vast quantity of smaller branches and leaf clusters
littering the grass and deck. It also knocked out our electricity, and
we have spent the ensuing afternoon, night, day, and night in the dark.
Initially, the girl at Ameren said the predicted return of power was
2:30 am Sunday. She also said, though, that she didn't think they'd make
that. Now, they're not even making predictions anymore. I did hear a
news item stating "sometime Tuesday".
I'm glad we didn't get around to the grocery shopping Saturday morning.
It's going to be bad enough losing what we did have in the fridges and
freezers (though I continue to hope that the Policy of Non-Opening will
keep at least some of our frozen goods edible).
Life in the dark is a strange thing. In not much more than a century,
people (Americans anyway) have come to be so dependent on electricity
that its temporary loss leaves us consternated. We can't cook dinner
because our stove is electric. We grouse continually about the humidity
because our a/c isn't running to dry the air. It's not even all that
hot! But we don't know what to do with ourselves. We've kept farmers'
hours the last couple days, going to bed soon after the sun, and getting
up with the light. There's few things we can think of to do after dark
that don't require stronger illumination than the candles and oil lamp
can provide. Even playing cards, which we tried on Saturday night,
caused eyestrain.
I find myself thinking stupid things. Yesterday, I thought, "Well, the
laptop ought to be fully charged, it was plugged in all of Friday
night...I could get on the Internet....Oh, duh, the cable modem needs
electricity." Yes, I could have hauled it to Starbucks or St. Louis
Bread, but really. I'm not *that* addicted! Really!
