Checking my box of tissues, making sure a good supply remains, I grab one and blow my nose. I’ve been stricken with a cough-flu-thingie and am resting on the living room sofa. Not sick enough to be bed-ridden but under the weather enough to need rest.
“How long did you say the power’s been off?” I rasp to Dick.
“Since noon,” he tells me. I glance at the clock. It’s now 5:45 p.m.
“Maybe should I call REA,” I suggest. Earlier in the day on my way home from town, I’d seen the power company’s truck on the South Shore Drive and hoped against hope my house hadn’t lost power.
But it had. I trudged inside, grocery bags in hand to be greeted by an abnormal quiet. Abby, the lab mix sprawled on her sofa and Magoo stretched out near Dick. The ceiling fan was not revolving; the television was off as well as all the lights. Dick was resting in his recliner, a tissue box at his side, also a victim of the cough-fluthingie.
We were without power. Again. The South Shore Drive is infamous for power outages and during this year of heavy wet snowfalls has received at least three if not four of them.
I accepted the inevitable. No power until… who knew? The afternoon stayed quiet as we fought the flu bug and waited. Suddenly, midafternoon, the lights came on, the refrigerator hummed, and I was ready to cheer when everything stopped again. The appliances ground to a halt and the lights went out. We were back to the gloom.
This didn’t bode well.
At 3:30, we decided to set up our 1,000-watt generator, and within half an hour had one lighted lamp and a glowing television screen plugged into it. We also lit a kerosene lamp to brighten the hallway. There was nothing else to do but keep waiting. Obviously, today’s problem wasn’t easily solved.
With nothing else to do we went back to coughing, blowing our noses, sneezing and snoozing, but at least the atmosphere wasn’t as glum.
The hours passed this way, and I begin to worry.
“I’m calling the power company.” I finally say, scrounging around for a phone number. “They might not know about us. Maybe our house slipped through the cracks and the power people left the area.”
I’m on my way to the telephone when, without warning, everything electrical turns on…lights, refrigerator… ceiling fan. Will it last this time? I wait and hope and finally, 10 minutes later am satisfied that, yes the power will remain on.
I finally relax and settle back for a quiet evening, thankful for modern conveniences.
Leave a Reply