Blackout!

So much for Spring.

We had another freaking 'blizzard':



But this time, since it was a heavy, wet storm, conditions weren't bad [for the most part].

But when I got home, the power was out!

There were spotty outages all over the city.

Thank god I buy candles on a pretty regular basis.

It's always eerie how quiet things are when the power is out.

Little things like the sound of the refrigerator make you forget how electric-dependant we are.

Oh and get this....

The elevator was down, though I rarely use it [it's uber-slow], and had to use the stairs.

Which wouldn't be a problem, but there's no emergency lighting in the stairwell.

Design flaw!

What if there was a fire and the power was out?

I had to use the light from my phone to get up the stairs and it totally make me think of Cloverfield when they were in the subway tunnels.

I half expected a mutant parasite to drop from the ceiling and bite me.

Anywho, my old phone would have been better than my current phone for that purpose.

It had the brightest screen I have ever seen.

I had to wear shades when I first got it because it was like looking at a supernova.

So, with no teevee or radio to entertain me, I had to figure out how to kill time.

The remaining sunlight was fading so I had to come up with something that can be done by candlelight and electric torch.

Initally, I thought, 'hey, I'll clean, since I have been putting it off'.

Well, trying to clean mirrors and dust in candlelight didn't turn out so well.

So I decided to change my bed linens, and soon discovered trying to change a duvet cover by torch is not a task one should try.

I moved on to getting laundry ready for later this weekend and sorting bits and bobs around the house.

This managed to kill, oh, I'd say, about 30 minutes.

Still no power.

Decision time:

Do I [gasp!] read a book, or the magazines that I am about 8 months behind on?

Do I tweet?

Or, as a last resort, break out the netbook and use the final two hours on it's battery?

Whilst trying to decide, I decided the smart thing to do was to have a cocktail, because I need to use the ice before it all melts!

Just as I pour a nice chubby [not stiff] one, I see flashing lights coming through the window.

It was the Power Peeps!



I didn't know how long it would take them to restore power, so I decided to login the netbook.

About five minutes later, I see one of the Power Peeps banging the electric poles with a big stick, knocking off the snow and ice.

I was afraid he was going to have to attempt to climb the icy, slippery rungs on the pole and try and replace a transformer.

Turns out, nope.

Primitive banging the shite off, worked!

I totally have gained a new repect for the field power workers.

Last place I would want to be right now is outside in the snow playing with gigawatts of live electricity.