NO ELECTRICITY BLUES

I intended to write yesterday.  As I was finishing up my morning brain wake up games and drinking my tea, after dealing with the cable company and paying them off totally for a change (first time in a year I have had a 0 balance (for two weeks anyway)!  I switched over to get my writing on and boom, lost power!

I phoned the emergency number for WMECO, to get a recording telling me it would be 1 to 3 hours.  I tried to focus on non electricity matters, but sweeping did not appeal to me, I could not concentrate on soaking up the rays and reading so I got my Brooklyn Lantern and hung it on the mirror in the bathroom, praying to have enough hot water in the tank to at least get clean after the pajama day the day before in the dim light in my windowless bathroom.

I got lucky and even got to wash my hair before the water ran out.  I got dressed and headed out the door to  do a bit of shopping and see what the rest of the outside world was up to.  Fortunately, the outage did not close down the neighborhood convenience store, so after a quick stop there I headed to my other three stops.

Along the way, I ran into one of my summertime Lanesboro friends from my childhood, who offered to walk down the supermarket with me and keep me company.  An offer I readily agreed to.  He works there and had to check on something, and I was grateful to have someone to walk and talk with.

My friend remembers when I was younger and my children were little and they used to burp and talk.  A talent I used to have as well, and one, in which every time I see this person, he insists I try, knowing in his mind that I can still do something I could do 25 years ago, like no time had passed.  I am not sure if my grown children still have this talent, but I did make myself burp, although the talking part was out of the question !

My friend assured me that I just needed to take in more air, and I laughed and promised him I would try in the privacy of my house to practice to say "Hi Joe", next time I saw him!  My friend is a bit childlike, although we are the same age, and amazingly after dying on the operating table and being revived, he seems different, almost more like the rest of us as far as not lagging a bit behind. (Although, not in the case of the burp talking!)

The newly placed "Popcorn Wagon" which was recently moved from it's usual corner on Park Square happened to be opened and ready for business when we came back up to North Street, so I purchased some fresh popcorn and treated him to a soda for keeping me company and being a good sport and we parted company at the park where we ran into each other, him to people walk and me to unload my loot.

I figured this power outage was payback for me not even getting out of my jammies the day before ~ the universe giving me a boot in the behind with no power and a beautiful sunny day.  I had run into my good friend Mike during my excursion as well, as he was doing his delivery job and we made plans to get together after our "work".

I had been home about ten minutes, my son had just woken up and we were in the living room talking when I thought I heard the beep of the microwave coming on, when I went into the kitchen, however, I thought I had been mistaken and hearing things when it flickered back on and this time remained so!

I had stopped and grabbed some half and half for tea in hopes of just such an occurrence on my way home, so I danced a little jig as I made tea!  The cell phone rang with the electric company telling me my power should be back on, if it wasn't then I was told to phone the electric company.  I was operational so no call necessary.

My phone rang again and it was Mike making sure I was home, telling me he had something for me.  You never know with Mike, it could be anything from ice cream which he loves, to music, so I was intrigued as I waited for his arrival.

I should have guess it though ~ it was Chinese food to share and he forced me to eat some shrimp with broccoli and rice and won ton soup.  It was a nice surprise and gave me a hankering to try that won ton recipe with the homemade won ton wraps and the crab Rangoon's which you all thought I forgot about (my son keeps eating the cream cheese before I get to use what I need)!

We had a nice visit and hung out in the sunshine in my backyard for a bit before he had to go home and plant some pumpkin seeds.  My son called as well and was going to come over after work, so it appeared to be a pleasant social day shaping up.

My friend John also showed up, a bit earlier than my son did, with a LARGE pizza in hand, so not only was it a social day, it was also a food day as well!  Since my son who lives with me polished off three quarters of a large pizza by himself, I decided that it was not the night to prepare the elaborate meal I had planned and cooked a couple of hot dogs for dinner instead later in the evening.

Everyone left, and I finally had time to get on the computer.  By that time, I read that James Gandolfini  (RIP) had died in Italy so my good thoughts and plans of writing got kicked to the curb, as I was not in the mood at all, my mind had turned a corner on itself!  (Right brain/left brain battle!)

Knowing I had to be up early today, I retired early and was asleep before 10 p.m.  Waking up once, at 3:00 a.m., when I heard my son going to bed.  So much for him getting up early today!  I probably will have to fight to get him out of bed in order to make it to the lab for his weekly blood work, something I am not looking forward to at all!

It being Third Thursday, I am happy.  It is one of the two things which I look forward to that our community has been doing now for a few years, which I have been enjoying now for two myself.  This one is baseball themed to support/promote our local baseball team.

I am looking forward as well to the live music (at least two great blues bands will be playing), and checking out more thouroughly the show at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, which my friend curated last week which had a poor turnout due to the rainy weather, and seeing Michael Rousseau's show for the final viewing (for the third time I think now).

Looks to be a great day with no rain in the forecast this time, which always makes outdoor evening events more enjoyable.  I passed up an opportunity Tuesday evening to go Stand Up Paddle Boarding the other night partially because I had plans, but also as the rain had cooled the air down a bit much for me to be falling into a lake and freezing to death learning how to do it, although, I do plan on trying it on a better day!

So life is good, but I really did struggle with no electricity the other day.  One realizes, but doesn't fully grasp how important electricity is.  I think that for civilization, if the day does come when we no longer, for whatever reasons, have no access to electricity, it is going to be bat shit crazy out there due to our dependency on all of our technology which for the most part requires it!

I hope that I for one am not on the planet when that occurs!  I made the best of it for the four hours electricity free, but I think any longer and without the option to leave the house, I would not have fared so well!