Thursday afternoon John turned off the main breaker so that he could replace the over-the-sink kitchen light that had died. When he completed the task and went to throw the main breaker to restore power to the house. . .nothing happened. And continued not to happen. He put in a call to a retired electrician he knows. The future looked dark. Maybe till Monday. John headed for the store for more lamp oil and for kerosene for the generator. I took the lamps outside to await filling. And built a fire in the living room and the bedroom stoves.
No power. No water (we have a well with an electric pump.) No internet. And I had a Zoom meeting with my writing class at 6.
No worries. I joined the meeting by phone and my laptop had enough battery left that I could read my notes on the two pieces under discussion.
It's actually quite pleasant, sitting around with just the fire and the lamplight. Of course, the next morning, there was reality--what about the refrigerator and the two freezers? We need to bring up water from the lower place for washing dishes and flushing. I need to charge my phone. How soon will the greenhouse need watering? What is Heather Cox Richardson saying today?
And then--a miracle! The retired electrician found a part in his barn that suited our antique fuse box and by noon on Friday, power was restored.
It's a good reminder, especially with winter coming, to try to be prepared.
5 comments:
Oh my...a bit of reality bump there. Sorry you had to stop everything to go back to survival mode. I've been thinking of our ancestors who decided to go to new lands...and that many of them were dealing in survival, not just manifest destiny. But the question in my mind is when does the survival of your family legitimately make it alright to take the rights of another culture, another people's freedom and their land? It should be never, I know. But it obviously happened again and again. Our western European ancestors did just that, and closed their eyes to the indigenous people who were here first.
It did look pleasant and inviting in those pics. But only for awhile, eh?
We finally, after 26 years of living in a house that lost electricity regularly - including well pump and sump pump - got a partial whole house generator. While it was lovely when the power went off the other night with those high winds and the generator automatically kicked in, I miss the candlelight and enforced simplicity. Although I do have to say, I only enjoyed that for a few hours and then I wanted my water back on!
I'm glad you got it fixed reasonable quickly.
Clever you two...
Sometimes something happens and it helps us fixing things which could really go wrong.
I agree... How can one have a life without Heather Cox Richardson?!
Deana the Queena
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