When Gretchen and I got home and came inside, I wondered why Mother was sitting in the dark. Dusk was near and we usually close the draperies and turn on the night time lights. “The electricity went off right after you left”, Mother called out to me. Not knowing how long the power would be off I began to scurry around for candles and such. “I don’t like candles burning in the house” Mother’s voice trembled, “I am afraid of fires”. I reassured her that the candles were temporary to help me find my oil lamps and flashlights as it was very dim inside.
I went to the Emergency Supplies closet and pulled out small miners’ lamps and several larger oil lamps. They had sat unused for so long that all the fuel had long ago evaporated and I was required to refill the lamps with oil in near darkness. “Rats”, I thought to myself, “I rather pride myself on some degree of preparedness and this is not being prepared”! The tank less water heater would not work as it has an electronic starter switch so Gretchen was disappointed she couldn’t shower. I did however pull out our butane cooking stove and set her to warming the leftover soup from yesterday for her supper.
This was an excellent forced run to show me how much better I need to be prepared. None of the flashlights save one functioned well. I luckily had the hand generated flashlight that Beth had given me years ago and cranked it up and could see to get from room to room. It was totally dark in the house now except where small pools of light provided by the lamps shown. My biggest concern was that the heating unit was out and temperatures expected to go down into the mid 20’s tonight. We all checked out beds and added extra covers as needed and I kept the fire burning brightly, never the less the temperature fell quickly in the house to the low 60’s.
About 9:00 pm the electricity came back on. What a relief! Gretchen quickly showered, the house warmed up and I made grilled cheese sandwiches for those hungry. Through all of this I began writing a list of things I needed to get as soon as possible so we would be better prepared. Then shortly after 10:00 pm the power went off again. At this point we all decided to head for bed. Needless to say, I slept very poorly that night what with worry about the heat being off. Sometime towards morning I heard the heat kick on and finally drifted off to a sound sleep. Oh how we take modern conveniences for granted!!
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