POWER OUTAGE

A few weeks ago (before my singular failure of internet connection) I had a full on black out in my apartment. Total power outage. And I’m pretty sure it was only my apartment (because I could still hear the droning beat of Dominican music from my neighbors’ apartments and I doubt they were rockin’ out to battery operated boom-boxes).

It was about 8:30pm - just getting dark outside. It was hot – about 95 degrees. I had the TV on, a lamp that I use in place of the harsh overhead light, the AC up to full blast, music playing on my laptop, and I was “surfing the net”. (Does anyone even use that phrase anymore – “surfing the net”? And yes… I did have the TV on and music playing at the same time. I know.)

And suddenly I thought I had gone deaf & blind because there was only darkness & silence.

As this has happened once before - every one of those items is plugged into this great power strip that turns itself off before I blow a fuse - I casually stepped the few feet from my couch to the hall light and flipped it on – assuming that I would then be able to have enough illumination to reset my power strip, and perhaps re-evaluate the multitude of sensory gadgets I was running at the same time.

But the hall light didn’t come on. And neither did the bathroom light. I had just changed the main fuse less than a month ago. And I didn’t want to go through it again. Nor did I even have a fuse – so I’d have had to go into the hotter outside & hope that a hardware store was open. So, I got out this flashlight (thanks, Aunt G!) and I found some matches and I lit every candle I have… which is roughly a dozen. Not really enough light to see everything. Definitely enough light to create a romantic glow, though. For myself. Hrmph.

By this time it was only 9 o’clock. So I gathered all the candles together by my bed and curled up with a crossword book… and after struggling to see the clues in that tiny print, I finally gave up and just sat in my bed, enjoying the quiet.

And it was quiet. Very quiet. There was something eerie and peaceful about it. And I bet you thought those things couldn’t go together… but once in a while they do.

And I must’ve needed it. Because I got the best night’s sleep I’ve had in a long time. And in the morning – everything worked again. Like magic.