Night Without Power...or was it?

We lost power around 3:30 on Friday afternoon.

Rounded up our candles (including a big box of shabbat candles that I had set aside) and our battery powered lanterns. And flashlights. Mine didn’t work no matter what I did but Steve fiddled with it for a few seconds and suddenly it worked. My definition of sexy is changing as I get older.

We figured out drinks and dinner: Thai noodles, avocados with tortilla chips, and smoked salmon. Yummy!

Then we found the transistor radio and listened to public radio, heard a story about China, and then next show, Market Place, more China. The people rose up against the Covid restrictions and now the restrictions have been lifted and it is going to be a completely crazy overwhelm of the health care system. So maybe in Vermont, the mix of adherents and skeptics is working well. Either you are vaccinated or you got Covid or both. We have herd immunity it seems.

Then switched to The Point and danced to The Great Divide by Phish. Take the highway. (Hard to do when it is covered with snow and ice.)

Decided we will go to Phish in New York for New Year's Eve, 2023. (Unlikely.)

Decided we will go to St. John’s for my birthday. (More likely and very privileged and worst thing we can do for the environment, contributing to climate change which is at least part of the reason we are having power outages.)

Also discussed the upcoming visit to Asheville to see my mother who is slowly dying. So slowly. Hard in some ways but it is life. Life is a long, slow death.

Discussed the need to get more off the grid. Wood stove options. More solar panels. And a generator. Oh, wait, mom’s generator did not work???!!!! So, again, wood stove and solar panels. A generator is not the most reliable plan B. But a working generator would be great.

Enjoyed the candles, dinner, dancing, and discussion about China and the end times. Which included our agreement that religion is the bane of human existence. I am not impressed with religious people. They seem very violent to me. And, even worse, they make me feel violent. Then again, the Chinese government outlawed religion and that is not freedom either. So let me revise: It is not religion itself that causes conflict but both the attachment and the aversion to it. What is up with humans in glass houses, throwing stones? Broken glass everywhere! We need to evolve. We are coping with "battle conditions", often the impetus for evolution.

The first things we did when the power came back on four hours later were: 1) fill up the bathtub with water; 2) run the dishwasher; and, 3) turn on the TV:) all resource hogging activities.

So did we have more power when the electricity was out? I think so. We were inspired, creative, communicating, and connecting. Unplugged, our own natural electricity began to sparkle.

On the other hand, when the power was out again the next morning and continued thus for two more days, followed by a few days with power, followed by another three days over the Christmas holiday without power…we are not set up to live without power. We are exhausted.

Nevertheless, thankful for the wood stove, for friends who have power (namely, Kevin Wilson,) and one bar on the phone that allows you to text and even go on line! Perhaps most grateful to Mother Nature for reminding us of her power and beauty and our limitations.