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At 5:25 last night, we were waiting for Cathy to get home. Sarah was watching TV. I was putting some cuts from "The Music Man" into my mp3 player. Then the lights went out. I went to the first and smallest of my flashlights, a tiny LED light I'd gotten on sale at Radio Shack. It had been a good light for a while, then its wire got bent inside and it would turn itself on a lot. Two nights ago, it had done so for over an hour. I quickly determined that it was now an ex-flashlight and generously gave it to Sarah. I fished out my trusty mini-Mag and rounded up other flashlights in the house. Sarah carried the lantern.
Cathy arrived, having been close enough to home she wasn't much inconvenienced by the non-working traffic light at the next intersection. She reported that lights a block or so away were working, and that somebody had hit a pole, probably due to the fat, wet snowflakes that had been falling for a while at that point. She called the power company, who didn't yet know how long things would take. We were glad Sarah's gymnastics class wasn't meeting, as there wouldn't be any power there (it's close enough to go off when ours does).
The question of supper came up. Sarah wanted Cheerios, so I poured her some. I made myself a sandwich, using the emergency can of Vienna sausages. This also left enough cold cuts in the fridge for Cathy to make herself a sandwich. I got out some glow sticks and made Sarah a four-stick loop. This was a good idea, because she not only didn't mind the dark so much, she even left lighted rooms to come play with it in darker rooms. I got our tiny battery-powered TV down from upstairs and set it to the last kid show of the day on the Connecticut public station. Reception was uneven, but it kept Sarah's attention for close to half an hour.
The phone rang. It was the auto-dialer at Sarah's dentist, reminding us of her appointment next week. I pressed "1" to acknowledge it. I got out my cell phone and called my sister to chat a while. I looked around for batteries -- lots of AA and AAA; can't find our hoards of C and D. I know we also have lantern batteries somewhere, and a table lamp that uses one. None of these turned up, though I searched a few times. Something to do during the day, I guess, along with sorting and organizing everything else.
The generator was in the shed, but I didn't think we'd need to get it. If the power was going to stay off all night, we might have to take things out of the freezer and put them on the back steps. Before any of that became a serious issue, though, the lights came back on. Just in time for the start of Sarah's cable shows, too. We were back to our regular schedule, except in all the excitement, we forgot Sarah's shower. Or bath, if she's back to baths. The house, at any rate, was once again alive with the full spectrum of little electrical noises, and the heating system could start warming up again. At a little over an hour, it was one of the longest outages we've had up here. In Virginia, our power would go out longer than that if a bird sat on the line.
.
At 5:25 last night, we were waiting for Cathy to get home. Sarah was watching TV. I was putting some cuts from "The Music Man" into my mp3 player. Then the lights went out. I went to the first and smallest of my flashlights, a tiny LED light I'd gotten on sale at Radio Shack. It had been a good light for a while, then its wire got bent inside and it would turn itself on a lot. Two nights ago, it had done so for over an hour. I quickly determined that it was now an ex-flashlight and generously gave it to Sarah. I fished out my trusty mini-Mag and rounded up other flashlights in the house. Sarah carried the lantern.
Cathy arrived, having been close enough to home she wasn't much inconvenienced by the non-working traffic light at the next intersection. She reported that lights a block or so away were working, and that somebody had hit a pole, probably due to the fat, wet snowflakes that had been falling for a while at that point. She called the power company, who didn't yet know how long things would take. We were glad Sarah's gymnastics class wasn't meeting, as there wouldn't be any power there (it's close enough to go off when ours does).
The question of supper came up. Sarah wanted Cheerios, so I poured her some. I made myself a sandwich, using the emergency can of Vienna sausages. This also left enough cold cuts in the fridge for Cathy to make herself a sandwich. I got out some glow sticks and made Sarah a four-stick loop. This was a good idea, because she not only didn't mind the dark so much, she even left lighted rooms to come play with it in darker rooms. I got our tiny battery-powered TV down from upstairs and set it to the last kid show of the day on the Connecticut public station. Reception was uneven, but it kept Sarah's attention for close to half an hour.
The phone rang. It was the auto-dialer at Sarah's dentist, reminding us of her appointment next week. I pressed "1" to acknowledge it. I got out my cell phone and called my sister to chat a while. I looked around for batteries -- lots of AA and AAA; can't find our hoards of C and D. I know we also have lantern batteries somewhere, and a table lamp that uses one. None of these turned up, though I searched a few times. Something to do during the day, I guess, along with sorting and organizing everything else.
The generator was in the shed, but I didn't think we'd need to get it. If the power was going to stay off all night, we might have to take things out of the freezer and put them on the back steps. Before any of that became a serious issue, though, the lights came back on. Just in time for the start of Sarah's cable shows, too. We were back to our regular schedule, except in all the excitement, we forgot Sarah's shower. Or bath, if she's back to baths. The house, at any rate, was once again alive with the full spectrum of little electrical noises, and the heating system could start warming up again. At a little over an hour, it was one of the longest outages we've had up here. In Virginia, our power would go out longer than that if a bird sat on the line.
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