The electricity going out sent me into a panic when I was married. Considering my ex worked all the time, it’s not like he was usually around when the lights went out, but I would call him to tell him I was sitting in the dark. I could ask if he knew where the flashlight or matches were. He could look up the number for the electric company.
Not that he wouldn’t have helped if I could have reached him tonight, or looked something up if I’d texted for help, but he’s not my person to call anymore. He doesn’t know where stuff is in the house.
So my regular level of panic as the brownout goes black escalated tonight. Maybe it wasn’t the whole neighborhood. Maybe someone had cut the power on my house because he knew I was a woman without a man in the house and he would rob or rape me if I opened the door. I looked out the glass to see if the neighbors lights were out too. They were.
When my computer and living room lights blinked off, then on, then off again, I was on the phone with a friend, both of using landlines–as unlikely as that may be. She found her cell and called my cell and said her lights were out too. She lives a couple of neighborhoods away. If both of our lights were out, I figured we might be in for a long night.
I lit a candle–the one Mike and I used to light when we’d lie in bed. Why haven’t I thrown that away?
I found a teeny flashlight and walked around the house finding other things.
I opened the window in the bedroom upstairs to try to get Cavanaugh some moving air. It is not moving outside either. It is swampy with Texas rain.
I put ice in my glass of water to help cool me down.
I found my book light so I could read.
I can not remember where I packed the battery-powered fan that my ex went to the grocery store to buy in the middle of the night the last time the electricity went out.
Here’s the thing–I don’t think about being on a grid until the power’s gone, or the water shoots up from a hole down the street and I can’t flush my toilet. And then I go into theories that rival Y2K.
Maybe I should have supplies at the ready: flashlights, batteries, bottled water, canned food, and a battery-powered oscillating fan–because we are not in the mountains of New Mexico and a person can’t get comfortable in the kind of heat that sends you to the bathroom cabinet with a flashlight looking for a cotton swab and some isopropyl alcohol to get the sticky sweat off your forehead and cheeks.
No, really, the grid is scary. And I’m on it. I can’t get water or electricity without it. I don’t even have a vegetable garden to have a source of food “when it all goes down” as some hippies-cum-survivalists I know would say.
Now my lights are back on, as are the ceiling fans. I’ve blown out the candle and am now considering what plants to put in the ground out back–so we won’t starve if the grid is disrupted. How will I ever get to sleep tonight? How do we get off the grid?
How do you react to the electricity going out?
Image by mrcool256
Posted on September 2nd, 2010 in 
I have a book you can read. I got it for Peter when he was worried about 2012 stuff.
I’m only worried about 2012 stuff when the electricity goes out, am only afraid of the dark when I don’t have the option to turn the lights on.
Sonya,
First off bravo!! I LOVE the top of the page
Now maybe put a picture of you and Cavanaugh on the side.
As far as the other stuff. I might end up making myself sound like one of those hippie it all crumbles kind of people but you know what the heck…
Finances at our household have gotten so bad that we actually had our electricity turned off: http://kelly.halldorson.com/blog/?p=1212
We have a kept it off. This means we have no electricity (except when we run a generator for a few hours a day) and with no electricity in we have no running water. We’ve been living like this for a couple of months.
Now…with things sliding downward on a national level…war building, more people being incarcerated, the government getting bigger and the world seeming to go downhill in a scary way really fast…I can’t help but feel like learning to live without these things, running water, electricity, multiple cell phones etc that it’s a really good preparation for what could happen.
I do think some very bad things *could* happen. I don’t buy into the 2012 stuff but I do think we are quickly approaching a possible World War and/or Civil war…war…is my biggest concern. If I think along those lines.
The federal government has grown so big and so intrusive and meddling…both in our country and abroad that it’s – I believe – bound to have some huge rippling unintended consequences.
Actually not just learning to live this way but learning to still love and enjoy life this way. We are now working on converting an old school bus to travel around in and live even more simplistically… and entirely off the grid.
Don’t be afraid you can handle this stuff. If my kids can still smile after bathing with buckets of water warmed on the stove every day…you can handle a power outage here and there.
Love this entry.
Peace,
Kelly
Wow Kelly, you guys are really getting off the grid. I’m interested in hearing how it continues to go for you guys.
I need someone to cuddle with, preferably a pillow or a stuffed bear. Actually, I react fairly calmly. Over here, Hurricane Earl is headed straight for us, so I’m expecting potential black outs over the next hours or day. You can do it!
When there’s a big storm and I can kind of expect it, it’s not so shocking, but when it’s barely raining outside it just feels like a car accident–so out of the blue and what am I going to do now? I love the idea of just getting a teddy bear and cuddling in the dark. Nice!
My 15 year old told me yesterday: “I’m not afraid of the dark, I’m afraid of what’s in the dark.” I, on the other hand LOVE when the power goes out. It is exciting. It is an excuse to go to bed early (and to be late for work the next day:) ). It is a reason to sit on the porch and watch the night. To be still, and quiet and undistributed by technology. But it is good to know where the candles are just in case.
I loved the blackouts in Taos winters when we could use the gas stove to pop corn and make hot chocolate, light a fire. Or, in the summer, I could go out on the deck and look at the stars. Though, now that you mention it, I could actually have hung out in my back yard and watched the night.
I’m w/Jocelyn, I kind of dig it when the stuff goes down. We were in NYC for the blackout and it was a kind of awesome coming together of everyone, so much so that some agreed that it should happen at least twice a year. Good to know where the flashlight and candles are. I remember that you enjoyed getting spooked and spooking others in the dark…maybe your panic is a holdover from kid-hood?
Being in NYC in a blackout might give me a panic attack, though I’ve heard it’s pretty cool to commune with folks in the hall of the apartment building or out in the street. I remember you and Tanya jumping out from behind the septic tank, shining flashlights up from your chins, and nearly spooking the pee out of me. We definitely yelled “Boo” a lot.
Being in NYC in a blackout would probably give me an anxiety attack, though I’ve heard communing with folks in the apartment building hallways or out in the street is pretty cool.
I remember you and Tanya jumping out from behind the septic tank at the little house shining flashlights from under your chins. We definitely yelled “Boo” and freaked each other out on a pretty regular basis. Mike used to have to shake his keys or stomp his feet as he walked through the house to make sure that he didn’t walk up on me unsuspecting–or I would scream and nearly jump to the roof.
Being in NYC in a blackout would probably give me an anxiety attack, though I’ve heard communing with folks in the apartment building hallways or out in the street is pretty cool.
I remember you and Tanya jumping out from behind the septic tank at the little house shining flashlights from under your chins. We definitely yelled “Boo” and freaked each other out on a pretty regular basis. Mike used to have to shake his keys or stomp his feet as he walked through the house to make sure that he didn’t walk up on me unsuspecting–or I would scream and nearly jump to the roof.
i always wonder how long one could survive on a vegetable garden or defending it when those who are not into peace and love came armed looking for free food.
I’d never thought of having to defend the garden. Plus, you’d need the canned food and other staples, plus the basement or other outpost to hide in. Good God. Let’s just hope it doesn’t all go down.