Power Outage

The other night we lost power, and it seemed like it came out of the blue, or rather, out of the black. We’re no stranger to power outages, they happen all the time, but usually because of strong winds or rain, or even snowy, icy conditions. It was a perfectly normal evening, and not even that cold.

Unfortunately, it hit right as we were about to eat supper. On a bright note, dinner was made, so we could eat by candlelight, but between supper and bedtime is when we use the most water in this house, either for washing dishes, brushing teeth, or most importantly, using the toilet. We couldn’t do any of the above.

Luckily, there was still dish water left from supper prep, so R could at least clear the muck off the plates. We have fresh water bottles stored just for this reason, so we could brush our teeth and have a drink. It’s the use of the toilet that really suffer, or should I say, we really suffer? I have a big plastic bin in the basement filled with water that we use to “flush” the toilets, but it never really does the job as nicely as a normal flush. Then again, you do what you have to do, and it’s better than nothing.

Truth be told, when all of us needed to use the facilities, it all worked out fine. Not perfect, but nothing’s perfect in life, right? What the power outage really brought to life, however, was how were not really prepared in an optimal manner for a blackout. Now you don’t crystal clear fresh water to flush a toilet, but it’s a lot more pleasant if it’s clean. The water wasn’t that bad, but it did have some debris and bugs floating around.

Also, the batteries in our good flashlights were dying, and I didn’t have back-ups. Shame on me. We did have plenty of candles, however. I decided the next day to clean out the bin and fill it with fresh water, and to get new batteries for all the flashlights. It might be another two years before we lose power again (highly unlikely), but at least we’ll be ready.

Until then, thanks for reading.