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April 28, 2004

When the Lights Go Out

So last night we had a huge storm, trees were falling, power was flickering, and then it finally happened. We lost the lights. And that's that. Where Jennifer and I live, the power goes out at least once a month. I don't know how many times we've had to go to the store to replace spoiled food.

It is not uncommon for us to spend an entire day without power. When Jennifer and I came back from Spring Break, the clocks were all blinking. Was the power out for a minute? An hour? A day? How should we know. Most of the food didn't make us too sick.

If you discount the expensive replacement of nearly everything in the refrigerator, and those couple days we had to sleep by the fireplace to avoid freezing to death, blackouts are pretty cool. Jennifer disagrees.

I think this is because of our differing backgrounds. Jennifer comes from a small town, whereas I come from the big city. Life without lights is amazing and fascinating to me. I get really excited when the blackout is so big that you can actually see the night sky.

Jennifer doesn't appreciate the idea of total darkness, because she's used to it. It's never dark here. Especially on cloudy nights, the sky reflects a constant orange. Light pollution is literally non-existent in parts of Norcal. The night sky there is absolutely amazing. (I'll try to put some pictures of the orange glow on the next 512.)

So when the lights go out, I get excited, and I want to go out and enjoy the darkness. I think it's cool! Jennifer just thinks it's creepy.

The other thing about losing power is you don't realize how much you need it. We can't cook. We can't see. We only have our own wit and humor to entertain ourselves. Lots of babies are conceived during power outages, because people don't have anything better to do. (Maybe also because their spouse looks a lot better when they can't see them. By the way, I'm pretty sure the baby/blackout ratio is just a urban legend.)

Seriously though, maybe instead of sitting around waiting for the power to come on, we should make the most of it; spend time with our friends and family, get to know them better. Sometimes we can live with someone and still know nothing about them. Even worse, sometimes we're married to them!

Next time the power goes out, ask questions, tell a story, have fun with someone special. Why not? You've got nothing better to do! Keep talking and you might not notice the power return!

Posted by March at April 28, 2004 12:00 PM

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