Today, I experienced a traumatizing event fit for an xkcd comic strip.
A few minutes after returning from Family Video with a video game, the power goes out. This is extremely uncommon, as we are on Grand Haven’s independent grid that nearly never goes down. So, I sat in the dark for a few minutes assuming the power would come back on at any moment (99% of the time is back in in five minutes).
After few minutes of waiting I finally decide to start scrounging around for a flashlight. Jesse found one, and we used it to find another. To be clear, we had enough time to wait a little while, find a flashlight, find another flashlight with dead batteries, find batteries, figure out how to open the flashlight, and put the batteries in the flashlight. And, the power still wasn’t back. This was unheard of.
So, of course the first thing I want to do is write a post about the experience. But, ultimately I decided not to, because I obviously could not post it since I had not internet access. But, more importantly, my laptop gets quite warm so I only use it when I can have a fan blowing on me to prevent my brain from boiling. No electrify = no fan.
At this point, I am figuring that I can survive without internet access for a little, because certainly the power should be coming on at any moment. I figured that it would be a good time to get a little catch up reading done. So, I grab my kindle only to say “battery is empty.” Ugh. I swear, whenever I want to use that thing the battery is dead. I really need to remember to turn off wireless when I’m not using it.
Next, I figured I would grab my iPod Touch, and see if everyone’s power was down by scanning for wireless networks. After that I was going to listen to some tunes. That thing was so dead that it wouldn’t even show the “charge immediately” screen. I swear, when the internet goes down, or in this case the power, all my electronics instantly die.
My last resort was to pull out an analog book, and attempt to read with one of those little book lights. I haven’t tried to read with one of those in ages. The light I use works pretty good with the kindle, but doesn’t work to well with a regular book, unfortunately. I managed to get through a chapter but it caused to much eye strain I was feeling sick to my stomach. At this point an hour had pasted.
So at this point I’m searching the house for a length of rope, and trying to figure out which branch would hold my weight the best.
After 90 minutes of unbearable horror, Jesse and I went to Wal-Mart. We wondered around for a half hour or so, and picked up some flashlights and portable fans. We got back to the house at a little after 12:30. Thankfully, during the time we were out the power came back on.
According to the blinking light on the stove, the power had come back on 11 minutes before we walked through the door. In order words, over two hours from the time it went out. Unfortunately for us, those two hours felt like an eternity.
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