Power Outage — Part I

February 25, 2010 — Around 11 p.m. I'm at my PC working on a web page and watching the Olympics while a violent wind and rain storm that would later make the news nationally rages outside. Wind sounds like a freight train. Oh, no! The power just went off. PC and TV went black, all lights out. In about 30 seconds, it came back on. PC came up OK and TV came back on. Fortunately, I had saved my work just minutes before the power went off. I immediately shut the PC down because I had a feeling it could happen again. In about 15 minutes that feeling would be confirmed.

Before the power went out I had seen Kim Yu-Na of Korea skate what would be the gold medal-winning performance, and the silver medal effort of Mao Asada of Japan. After the power came back on, I was watching Canada's Joannie Rochette skate her heartfelt program after the sudden death of her mother. She would win the bronze, but I wasn't going to know that for another day. Partway through her program — BANG! The power went off again, accompanied by the sound of an explosion somewhere outside. After about a half hour with no power and the sound of another explosion somewhere, I called the electric company, but a recorded voice asked me to leave my number and they would call me when the power came back on. Well, hello? Wouldn't I know that without them calling to tell me?

I decided I might as well go to bed. I sleep upstairs just under the roof. Listening to the roar of the wind, it occurred to me that if my large maple or one of the tall trees on the property abutting mine crashed through my roof, it would come down on my head, so I got up, pulled the blankets and sheets off the bed, brought them downstairs and made up the sofa in the living room where I spent the night. I heard another explosion. I didn't sleep much.