Power hungry

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I never think about how dependent I am on electricity until I’m without it. Should’ve known when the traffic lights on Carmen Rd were out that my electricity would be as well. So that eliminated my plan to knock another movie off my 2006 goal list. Also my plan to work on a couple of posts I’ve been writing on and off for the last few days. And my plan to fix some formatting on the Wordpress blog. On the plus side, my computer still had an hour so left of battery power in it, so even though I wasn’t able to get to the internet (because the modem and router both need power), I was able to try out the Microsoft ebook reader software I downloaded a couple of days ago and practice making annotations and stuff.

So then I got hungry. Except I have nothing in my apartment to eat that doesn’t need to be cooked (and by “cooked” I mean “put in the oven e.g. frozen pizza” because I don’t cook), microwaved, toasted, or boiled–all of which require electricity. No, I don’t have bread or cereal or chips, even. I finally found some year-old Girl Scout cookies.

Granted, I could’ve gone out somewhere and found light and food, and I very nearly did, but then I couldn’t be complaining, now could I? Also, I think Barnes & Noble closes early on Sundays, and I’m trying to wean myself off of fast food, and I wanted to get in bed relatively early, which is the one thing that power outages are good for. But eight o’clock was just a little earlier than I was hoping.

Let’s also mention the part where I don’t have a working flashlight. I do have some candles, which I save for occasions such as this. But let me tell you, candles aren’t really all they’re cracked up to be. Sure, they’re fine for the ambient light that gets you to the bathroom when the lights are out. But I don’t know how people didn’t go blind by the age of twenty back before they invented light bulbs. I suppose they didn’t stay up all night and planned their day more by the sun, but still. I wrote this out by candlelight in my notebook, but my notebook has unusually white pages (Moleskines are the best ever), and writing doesn’t require as much visual accuity as reading. As evidenced by the notes I took during Pirates of the Caribbean yesterday. Of course, those aren’t readable. But whatever. I tried to read, and made it through a sentence before I gave up.

Good thing my cellphone was mostly charged up and has an alarm. I need to be up earlier than usual tomorrow, and my clock? Electric and digital, no batteries. But the cellphone alarm has no snooze button. ;)

But on the really good side? The power came back on at 10pm sharp. Almost makes me wonder if they did it on purpose. And of course I was halfway asleep by then. And of course in the process of testing the lights, I’d left the one in the bedroom in the “on” position. So, yeah, wide awake now, so I decided to go ahead and post this, in the fear that my candle-lit handwriting wouldn’t be readable once I was a good night’s sleep away from remembering what I wrote.