Told ya so
Apr. 7th, 2010 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hafoc
The thunderstorm was long past. I was sitting where I am now, at my keyboard, when the lights went out. BOOM. That noise was from outside, and it didn't sound like thunder. Wasn't far away either; the sound seemed to happen at exactly the same time the lights went out.
They stayed out. I went to the garage and brought back a kerosene lantern. With that, the candle lantern, and a couple of the approximately 48 dozen flashlights we have stashed around this place, we had light enough. The kerosene lamp also warmed the place a bit. Not too much. But enough I could feel the difference coming in and out of the living room.
(Course it was also not as cold last night as it was today and will be tonight. We're expecting four inches of snow. Can you believe that? I can. I've lived here a while. :) )
The lantern is one I got cheap, by the way. It is the Dietz Millennium, a mid-sized lantern with special legs and a special top you can set a pan on to heat your soup. Pretty obvious it was meant for the Y2K end-of-the-worlders, but I don't mind; it meant I got it really cheap in 2003. We also warmed some soup on it, more to have something to do than from any real need. Now we know that actually works. Sort of.
So there I was, sitting with Teph in the dim. She had knitting, I had a radio to play with. I tried to get some sort of news about what might have happened or when we might get power back, but our main local news outlet around here is still a NEWSPAPER, for pete's sakes, so of course I got no information.
Oh, yeah, I did call the power company to report the power failure. That was mildly amusing.
Like most big companies, our power company's customer service department is chiefly designed to prevent interference with business operations by those pesky customers. Their regular contact number is just an automated system which, like all voice mail, really says only one thing: "You're not important enough for us to answer the phone." I used it to enter information about my power failure anyway.
But then I called back on the emergency line, because I had that one special extra piece of information. Something went boom. Not thunder. Very close. I figured that could help them track down what the problem was, and where.
About 1:00 AM various things clicked and whirred and the lights I hadn't known were switched on all came on. I had time enough to reach for the first switch and then the lights went off. BOOM.
"Told ya so," I muttered to nobody in particular, and turned over to try to go to sleep.
Based on the old-fashioned electric clock, power was out for about six hours and a half before they got things going again.
They stayed out. I went to the garage and brought back a kerosene lantern. With that, the candle lantern, and a couple of the approximately 48 dozen flashlights we have stashed around this place, we had light enough. The kerosene lamp also warmed the place a bit. Not too much. But enough I could feel the difference coming in and out of the living room.
(Course it was also not as cold last night as it was today and will be tonight. We're expecting four inches of snow. Can you believe that? I can. I've lived here a while. :) )
The lantern is one I got cheap, by the way. It is the Dietz Millennium, a mid-sized lantern with special legs and a special top you can set a pan on to heat your soup. Pretty obvious it was meant for the Y2K end-of-the-worlders, but I don't mind; it meant I got it really cheap in 2003. We also warmed some soup on it, more to have something to do than from any real need. Now we know that actually works. Sort of.
So there I was, sitting with Teph in the dim. She had knitting, I had a radio to play with. I tried to get some sort of news about what might have happened or when we might get power back, but our main local news outlet around here is still a NEWSPAPER, for pete's sakes, so of course I got no information.
Oh, yeah, I did call the power company to report the power failure. That was mildly amusing.
Like most big companies, our power company's customer service department is chiefly designed to prevent interference with business operations by those pesky customers. Their regular contact number is just an automated system which, like all voice mail, really says only one thing: "You're not important enough for us to answer the phone." I used it to enter information about my power failure anyway.
But then I called back on the emergency line, because I had that one special extra piece of information. Something went boom. Not thunder. Very close. I figured that could help them track down what the problem was, and where.
About 1:00 AM various things clicked and whirred and the lights I hadn't known were switched on all came on. I had time enough to reach for the first switch and then the lights went off. BOOM.
"Told ya so," I muttered to nobody in particular, and turned over to try to go to sleep.
Based on the old-fashioned electric clock, power was out for about six hours and a half before they got things going again.
