We lost power during a huge wind storm yesterday. They say some of the gusts were as high as 55 mph!! As soon as it blinked out, I knew we'd be in trouble. That's because I could see that the neighbors across the street still had lights, and the entire block behind us, including the high school, still had lights. It appears only our tiny block of about 6 or 7 houses went out. With the bad weather all throughout metro Detroit yesterday, I knew DTE Energy would probably work on areas with larger numbers of homes out before they would come to our tiny little block.
And, I was right. I heard on the radio that there were as many as 80,000 customers out last night. As of this morning, 10,000 were still out. Unfortunately, we are still in that 10,000.
So, let me continue on with my post as stated in the title:
Without electricity --
At night you can't:
- See anything without lots of flashlights and candles
- Cook (electric stove and microwave)
- Watch TV
- Surf the internet
- Stay warm (the furnace is out)
- Get into the garage (electric door) -- I had to unlock the side door and open it manually
- Enjoy your Christmas tree lights
- Set your alarm for the next day (we used our cell phones)
However, you CAN:
- Do sudoku and crossword puzzles by candlelight
- Read
- Drink Manhattans
Then, the next morning, when you wake up, you can't:
- Stay warm (now it's even COLDER in the house -- about 50 degrees now)
- See anything without a flashlight (lots of fun in the shower -- at least we have a gas water heater)
- Cook
- Have a cup of coffee
- Dry your hair with a hair dryer
- Process Christmas orders from your online business
- Work in your virtual office at home (Chuck had to go downtown to work instead)
- Update your family blog
- Bake those Christmas cookies you planned to today
However, you CAN:
- Build a fire in the fireplace to stay warm
- Go to the library to use the internet
- Have breakfast with your daughter at McDonald's (had to get that coffee somehow!)
- Use "no electricity" as a good excuse to lolligag around the house and relax until the power comes back on (DTE says about 11:30 pm tonight...) even though I really should be doing lots of things to get ready for Christmas
In short, sometimes, it isn't until we are without something, that we realize how much we should appreciate it. And, rather than get all upset about not having any power, I'm taking the opportunity to enjoy the "simple life" today.
So, time to leave the library, and go back home to enjoy the fire some more.
UPDATE: Power came back on at 2:00 pm. Woo hoo !!!
1 comment:
i'm glad I wasn't there for that!
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