When the lights go out....

One of my favorite memories growing up were power outages! In my memory, they never lasted very long - a few hours maybe? When I was a kid, we pulled out the candles and the flashlights, turned on the radio for updates, and just spent time together! Sometimes we'd play cards or a board game, and sometimes I'd take a flashlight and go read in my room. As an adult, a daytime power outage usually meant either a chance to get caught up with paperwork (office phones are electric...) or just a nice break in the work day to visit with co-workers! Sometimes we even went home early! If the power went out overnight, it provided a GREAT excuse for sleeping in the next morning!

Power outages provided a welcome escape; a chance to slow down and take a break without that nagging "I should be doing something" feeling. I savored the intense silence, free from the incessant electrical buzz that is a permanent part of everyday life. I would eagerly await the next outage, and actually began to miss the retreat as technology improved and their frequency decreased.

Fast forward to today - in south Texas. Hurricanes abound during certain months. Tornadoes are possible and flooding is an ever present danger. These are not things I grew up with, so I don't have the ingrained knowledge of how to deal with them. Ask me what to do in an earthquake, and I'll tell you 3 possibilities in 2 seconds. Ask me what to do when a tornado warning is pending and I freeze. Power outages aren't so fun anymore.

Last night while Grady was out of town, we had an unexpected outage at 12:30am. I was just about to go to bed, when that familiar "power down" sound hit. Everything went dark, except for the emergency night light in our hallway. After I found a flashlight, and lit a few candles, I checked the weather on the porch, and it was fine - no rain, wind - just a nice balmy night in the 70's. Tornado watches were northwest of us, but not in our area, so that shouldn't have been an issue. It appeared that all of the buildings in our area were out of power - and I discovered that we have no emergency lighting in the stairwells (not a good thing!). With the power out - I couldn't check the weather channel on TV, but I thought I'd just check online. Eye opener for me - our internet doesn't work either when the power is out. I'm not totally sure why, but perhaps it's just the wireless that doesn't work because the router is electric. I'll have to check that out - maybe I can hook up directly to the internet and get info that way. In any case, at the point and time I needed information, I couldn't get it. And it scared me. I didn't want to call Grady and wake him up if it was nothing. But if it was serious, I wanted to be aware! We live on the 3rd and top floor of our building, so it's important to know if the roof is going to blow off! :o) I didn't know what to do.

Grady and I spent the whole year we've been here in Houston TALKING about getting a NOAA weather radio, and getting our emergency preparedness kit ready. But it's not done. We didn't have the radio. I felt ill-equipped to deal with what might be heading our way. I had no way to find out what was going on without calling someone. Fortunately, my cell phone was charged up, and I called mom. She's 3 hours behind us, so she was still up. However, calling mom to ask if there are any tornado warnings in our area is always a LAST resort! :o) That usually causes a bit of stress on mom's part - which it did! But just as she was going to the weather channel in Alaska to tell me what was happening in Texas... the power returned.

It still took me about 20 minutes before the internet connected, and the satellite didn't come back until the next afternoon (satellite TV is useless-that's another story for another time). I found no explanation for the outage, other than some speculation that there may be grilled squirrel across the street in the new apartment complex being built.... perhaps an open wire box?

I don't know what caused it - but I am thankful for the wake up call. We just got a NOAA Red Cross weather radio, have batteries in it and extras aside. We are gathering our important papers in one place, and getting our emergency kit together to put in the garage. My hope is that as we become more prepared, the apprehension I feel about blackouts will diminish, and I can once again enjoy the quiet and solitude.... when the lights go out......