Living in darkness....

[fajrdrako]

I went to the Green Room kitchen to get a cup of soy milk, and as I was pouring it, the lights went out. It was about 4.15 p.m. yesterday.

The Green Room kitchen without lights is very, very dark.

I stumbled my way out of the Green Room and up the stairs to the front lobby and to my office, where there was light and plenty of windows.

We thought the construction workers digging up the street beside the theatre were responsible. No, they said, a good part of the city was blacked. So it was, as far as we could see, in any direction.

It looked as if my fitness club at the Rideau Centre was dark too, so I decided to walk home.

All the traffic lights were out. The police were directing traffic at major intersections; traffic looked orderly, but slow. Abysmally slow. One step away from gridlock. Luckily I don't have to stick to traffic-laden city streets: once I'm past Laurier Ave., I can walk home by the canal, with not one cross-street for two miles, just a few underpasses where there are bridges.

The more I walked, the more it was obvious that the blackout wasn't just in centretown. Someone said it extended all the way to Toronto, maybe even beyond.

Since it was daylight still, my apartment was lit, but the kitchen and bathroom were too dark for visibility. I got out my candles, lit a few, and ate cold leftover curry for supper, with cheese and crackers for dessert. Waaay off my diet, but good.

I read.

When it got dark, I read by candlelight. Many, many candles.

All my radios needed power to work, or batteries. I didn't have enough batteries for any of it. The gentleman next door was playing his radio. I could almost make out words. I put my ear to the wall, but I could only hear the occasional phrase, and as soon as it got interesting, my budgies would cheep so loudly I couldn't hear anything else. I gave up.

I tried washing dishes in the dark, wishing I'd done that yesterday, when there was light and hot water. Such luxuries!

When it got dark, it got very dark. maboroshimaki dropped by and suggested that we go for a walk. We did.

It was easier to walk without a candle, which interfered with our night vision. We walked to Bank Street, where one of the restaurants was open still - people were drinking by candlelight on the patio at Feleena's. We walked to Kettleman's Bagels, and bought some, and got fruit juice.

It was so hazy the lights of the cars were framed in misty halos. The moon was huge and amber at the horizon. Mars was bright like a reddish spotlight.

The weirdest thing: when we looked north along Bank Street we could see miles of dark, lightless city. And beyond that, on the other side of the Ottawa River, we could she the brightly-lit office buildings of Hull.

Civilization with its attendant technology was just... over there. Just out of our reach.

We sat by the canal and ate bagels, and watched the darkness for a while.

When I went to bed, I started reading slash by flashlight. The light seemed to be getting dimmer. This is a frivolous use of batteries, I told myself, and went to sleep.

It was a hot night, but not as hot as it could have been.

No power in the morning. People told me that non-essential businesses were closed, and people were being officially asked to stay home. I stayed home. Some of my friends - reachable by telephone - had power since midnight, or 5 a.m., or 6 a.m. Not me.

Around lunchtime, maboroshimaki and I heard a rumour that one of the local grocery stores was open. We went walking in that direction. It was powerless and closed again by the time we got there, but we went onward to Bank Street and discovered that the Second Cup on Second Avenue was open, so we got iced lattes; and the Glebe Loeb was open, so we bought some groceries, though the bank machines were down and we had only $12 each. After groceries we pooled what was left and we had $3.47, so we were able to buy a Polish hot dog from the vendor on the street corner and eat half of it each.

It was wonderful.

In the afternoon, we sat on maboroshimaki's balcony with all the budgies and a friend from the third floor, and devised a game of Smallville Monopoly, which (with any luck) we can play with our Smallville friends next week.

The power came on again at about 4.30, after about 24 hours of being out. I am afraid to look inside my refrigerator. From time to time during the day I heard sheets of ice fall in the freezer - I should have defrosted it a few months ago. The ice cream will be gross. I suppose I should clean the freezer before it freezes again.

Naw. Too late now.

So now I'm about to work on the physical cards for Smallville Monopoly. maboroshimaki is making the playing pieces.

And it's a weekend.

I wonder if the television is working. On Wednesday, it wasn't; my cable/digital box had gone screwy, with an error message. Makes a person nervous.

I missed my online friends. Everyone. All of you. It's weird to be cut off.

Comments

[gem225.livejournal.com]

I'm really, really glad to hear that you're all right and have your power back. I missed you a lot. :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

How are you doing, power-wise? Okay I hope?

[gem225.livejournal.com]

We've had no power losses at all, which has been a happy surprise. When I heard about NYC and Ottawa and Detroit and Toronto, I fully expected to lose power too, but I'm thrilled not to have.

[squashed.livejournal.com]

Wow and I was complaining about it being off until 5 this morning and then off from 9-1 when in reality, I had it good.

Still dying from the heat though :P

*hugs*

[msilverstar]

Just found your journal and this happens. Am so delighted to hear that you're OK.

[shaggirl.livejournal.com]

Well, it sounds like you made the absolute best of the situation, so good for you! I'm glad it wasn't too tramatic.

[blackbyrde.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun, actually, except the heat part. :)

I was listening to CBC, and several people called in from the Glebe saying how some impromptu backyard parties were happening, with neighbours sharing barbeques and food so it wouldn't be spoiled. This was one of the time I wished I lived closer to the downtown core, where things and people are so much closer together. :)

Glad that everything is okay now. Don't worry about the ice cream. ;)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's great! Lucky person. I'm sure Ceilidh arranged it that way.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the heat is a real pain, isn't it? My air conditioning is off and I really miss it. But hey, I have hot water (thrill!) and light (even greater thrille!) and a DVD player I can use (playing LOTR right now).

Life is great even if it's damn hot!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you found it - welcome!

Yeah, I'm okay - just really hot at the moment because the air conditioning is turned off. We're watching "The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring" with as much pleasure as ever and counting the days (hours, minutes) to the release of the "Two Towers" DVD.

Oh I do love living with technology that works.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It definitely could have been worse! Thank goodness it wasn't.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes. Everybody was really great that we saw or talked to.

As for the ice cream.... At some point, we'll be able to buy more.

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

Glad to see that you're back among The Electrified. I think most of us out here far removed were realizing "there but for fortune"....and have started thinking about buying candles and flashlight batteries. We have an Army Surplus story nearby. I think I'll go buy a few things. A few hours, or making an early night of it is one thing, but there are some people who won't have their power back on until Sunday, they're predicting. That gets scary when you think of not being able to buy gasoline, or not being able to get at any money without ATM machines, etc., over a several day period hence potentially no food, etc. Glad that it didn't last that long for you - and that you're not having the heat we're having. I bought a thermometer - it's 88 degrees in this room right now, at 7:45 p.m. :-(

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

thinking about buying candles and flashlight batteries

Yup. I always knew it was a good idea - just hadn't bothered to do it. Now I plan to.

They say we'll still be having power outages for days. It's stayed on here since 4.30, though - and I must say I'm pleased. I'm hoping we'll still have power tomorrow.

There's very little in my life that isn't powered by electricity. For instance, a can of Coke from a soft drink machine - they're all electronic now and so weren't working.

It's been a hot day here and it'd pretty hot in my apartment right now too, but not as bad as 89 degrees.
I hope it gets cooler overnight. (Don't want to run the air conditioner right now, for obvious reasons....)