Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Comedy of errors

So. Right before 7 pm (I know, because my parents call at 7 pm on Wednesday) the power started flickering and doing "brownout" type things (lights getting very dim). I shut off the furnace and shut down my computer out of fear of a power surge damaging things (though the computer is on a surge protection system, so it probably would be OK)

Then it all went. No lights, no furnace, no alarm clock....no Internet, of course, although I had a nearly-fully charged laptop battery.

So I rounded up my camp lantern. And turned on the tiny string of LED battery lights I put up over my bed LAST Christmas and never took down. And I got out my glowy cat nightlight thing (it's like Kuchi Kopi from "Bob's Burgers", I now realize, only, a cat, and not inclined to plant evil suggestions into people's heads...) But it was lower on charge. So I turned on the computer to charge it (it charges off a USB cord). Played a few games of Mah Jongg Titans and Minesweeper (did you know there is now a "pacifist" variant of Minesweeper, where it's flowers instead of bombs?)

Gave up, decided to get into bed. Took my battery radio to see if there were any updates and dangit but I don't know what the local radio stations are, and anyway, there aren't really "local" stations any more, they just use feeds out of LA or New York or somewhere and this is one of the things that has changed so much since my youth and it annoys me - I tend to feel like every small town should have some kind of news and community station - heck, if you don't have enough going on for news, do a swap-shop. Or interview the local high school athletes. Something. Because when it all goes to pot and us few smartphone Luddites need information....well.

I guess the answer is: I need to get a smartphone some time, so I can look junk up when my modem is down because the power is out or some silly person in my cable/internet company fat-fingered the wrong button (I had lost nearly all my cable channels earlier in the evening, before the power outage. But now they're back).

And yeah. The outage made me unhappy and restless. I can sit happily through 20 minutes without power, much more than that and I wonder: when will it come back....and WILL it come back?

And I realized: I have no way to set an alarm for tomorrow morning (No smartphone, remember, and my clock-radio thing is electric). I dug out an old battery powered alarm clock I had, put a new battery in it and....womp womp. The alarm no longer works. (It is now in the trash. No point keeping a battery powered alarm clock if it won't alarm). Yes, I need to get another one. (Even if I get a smart phone, I'm d....d if I leave that thing on all night long for every alert and notification to wake me, and that would allow people to call me when I'm sleeping).

And then I realized: if the power's not back on tomorrow:
1. How will I dress in the dark? (Okay, okay: I hear the predictable joke: "How will anyone be able to tell the difference in how you look if you dressed in the dark than from when you dress on a normal day?")

2. How will I put on make up with just a flashlight? Already today I got way too much blush on because I was in a hurry and didn't realize it until I went to the restroom midmorning.

3. Worst of all: How will I get my car out? There is only one entry and exit to the "car compartment" of my garage, and it is the big door that is on the door opener. Yes, this is a flaw - the person who owned the garage before me had a big wall with cabinets put up between the "back door" in to the garage and the car compartment. (Some day, if I have the money to have the thing renovated, I'll get the guy to tear that down - I don't need the tiny narrow "potting shed" that it created, and there have been times where being able to get into the garage by ANOTHER door would have helped. And heck, I guess you can get upgraded opener systems with a battery back up now; that might be a nice thing to have)

So anyway. I called my secretary's office number and left a grumpy message fundamentally saying, "If campus is open tomorrow but I don't have power back, I won't be in, cancel my classes" because I'm sorry but it's too much to expect me to walk in under icy trees when I've also had to worry about getting my face made up in the dark and probably not slept well between worrying about "will I wake up in time" and also having to hear every a-hole in the neighborhood who is now super excited because he can drive around in his big ol' truck with his terrible music playing on "11" and everyone HAS to listen because they can't do things like run white noise machines to block out the terrible music....

But anyway. Power came back on around 8:30 or so. I checked my campus e-mail: campus is still open as of now, but - get this - campus police is asking people not to walk under trees on campus because the icy branches are falling down.

Gee, wouldn't it be nice if there were a way to, I don't know, not REQUIRE people to be on campus so they could stay home tomorrow and not walk under icy trees - or worse, under icy power lines that might snap and electrocute them? Argh. (The local school district has closed; they rarely close. And I know I have students in my 8 am class with a bad, bad commute)

Oh well. I guess I go to bed (might watch one of the "Bob's Burgers" re-runs to calm down a little first) and plan on getting up and being ready for another icy day...

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