1999 march 18

power outage

our power has been doing the off and on dance for the past three days.

i know they sent me a letter about it several weeks ago, but damned if i can remember why the hell they need to keep hitting the switch. there's a sign at the end of the road, reminding us of the possibility of intermittent power interruptions, and it has been rather amusing to go by each evening and see a new piece of tape over the end date, with a new one almost illegibly scrawled upon it. we've gone from 3-15, to 3-10 [i guessed it was a very loopy 6], 3/17 and last night, 18th.

having lived in places where the likelihood of intermittent power onnages was more the order of the day, it doesn't seem to freak me out nearly as much as some of my neighbours. i always have scads of candles on hand, some sterno for the fondue pot, and some little oil lamps. i also make sure to try and keep at least a quarter tank of gas in the car so's i can run to the next town for dinner should the prospect of tinned food seem particularly bleak. i am not addicted to the television and am more than happy to read should it not be available. i do miss the stereo, but if things become desperate, i can use the walkman, provided i have recharged the batteries, or i can go for a drive and blast the cd changer in the car.

there is one thing i miss and that is the bloody computer. i freely admit i am at its mercy: must check email, must read websites, must shop at cdnow and amazon, must stare blankly at the screensaver should all else fail. you'd think i'd have enough working with the damn things all day but invariably i come home and spend at least another hour or two hitting the keys of the home version.

although i haven't had to wake up with one in months, not having the alarm clock running seems to bother me a bit as well. if the power is all hunkydory, then i will wake sometime betwixt the hours of 4 and 6, seven days a week. give me a dodgy alarm clock though, and i wake every hour. apparently i am petrified of being late to the office. this even though i make my own hours, for the most part, and no one would look twice were i to show up at 8 or 9 or even 10 rather than 6 or 7, as is usual. i have this problems even on weekends, which makes the whole continual waking thing twice as annoying.

i think perhaps this saturday i'll make gene go with me to look at battery operated alarms. i'll do just about anything, even run two alarm clocks, for a good night's sleep.

in the dark, claire