Sadie’s First Power Outage
At somewhere approaching 7:00 last night, we were sitting at the computers, Sadie was playing on the floor, when… click. Bounce. Bounce.
The power slammed off, then on, then off and on again a couple more times in rapid succession, each of which left my poor computer attempting to reboot. I finally managed to hit the switch on the back to cut off the power supply at the source, lest it keep bouncing off and on and kill the machine.
Deb’s UPS screamed until she shut down and I killed the UPS power switch. We have that on the newer, better computer as it would be harder to bear having it die. Mine merely has an expensive surge protector.
It’s not especially common for the power even to blink off here, let alone go out like it means business. It did this time. It was an interesting exercise in our reactions and locating stuff. I can practically see in the dark, and have an almost uncanny ability to remember where things were so I don’t trip over them. I headed for the living room to get Deb’s Mag Light. Which I had just traded the batteries out of recently for the near dead ones that were in Sadie’s swing.
For her part, Sadie was babbling away and, as I recall, just starting to whine at us about nothing in particular. She was shocked into complete silence for the duration, though later she was fascinated by the candles, which she wanted to touch, naturally, and how things looked in candlelight. Luckily she was off to one side and we knew exactly where she was on the floor, because it was Just That Dark.
Deb found the candles, which weren’t where I thought they were, and a lighter, while I took the flashlight into the kitchen, turned on a couple gas burners on the stove, found a quarter, pried open the battery pack on the swing, and swapped the good batteries into the flashlight. Then we got five candles lit and distributed between kitchen and living room. I brought out one of those dome shaped closet lights you can press to turn on (it also has a pull string), and left that in the bathroom.
Then we got bored.
No TV. No computer. Not enough light for reading.
We had been talking supper anyway, so we discussed our “no microwave to thaw the chicken” and “minimize opening of the fridge” options. After much head scratching, I thought of and volunteered to make pancakes. It was easy to do in minimal (3 candles) light, and involved just two quick openings of the refrigerator.
We all ended up in the kitchen. Sadie was in the high chair, which she likes to sit in even just to play, because she can see everything well. She hates to miss things. The swing was starting to bother her because it was too low to the ground. Deb sat keeping her occupied and watching me make pancakes.
When those were most of the way done, it went on again. Best guess a bit over an hour, total. Yay! Talk about different perceptions, though. To me it was an unusually long outage. To Deb it was impressively short. Different experiences in different parts of the country.
It was also the first one here, apart from maybe a few flicks off for a minute or less. We definitely need to improve or readiness, although it could have been much worse. I used to have cheap flashlights all over the house. As they died or were lost, or I left them with my stepsister when I moved, figuring she’d need them more than me, I haven’t replaced them. There are one or two, with dead or near dead batteries, in car trunk or toolbox. In the Sentra I have a better flashlight, with near dead batteries, to make up for the lack of a dome light. We only have one handy in the house because Deb supplied a Mag Light, and a Mini Mag that didn’t turn up immediately.
Ironically, I had forgotten that I left the candles right out in a convenient place. Deb knew where they were. I was convinced I had more, but if I do, they are seriously buried in a drawer.
I used to have a rechargable flourescent lantern for camping. My brother borrowed it. When his ex stole his house, it was in the cellar. As far as I know, he never was able to get it back. That was enough for hours of reading. Traditionally I would read until I was falling asleep, and that allowed me to do so even when camping.
So we need more candles, in places we can find them easily, more flashlights, and spare D cells. We have big packs of AA and C cells, but I ran out of D size. A lantern would be a bonus.
Good as Sadie was through the whole thing, it seemed to throw her whole schedule off, and may have made her afraid of the dark. She fell asleep early, but then didn’t want to sleep for real. She’s having separation anxiety as it is. That plus being in the crib in the dark seemed to bother her. Or maybe it was just gas.
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