We here in Canada’s Capital, Ottawa, were smack in the middle of a big power failure caused by fierce weather that effected a broad swath of territory from Ohio and Michigan, through Southwestern Central and Eastern Ontario, on to Montreal and east. But as of this morning, we’re back…
Utility crews at work repairing lines downed by the hammering
Saturday, May 21, 2022 wind and rain storm…
Saturday, May 21, 2022 – 3:30 p.m
There we were, sitting down to watch Toscana, a new movie on NETFLIX about a conflicted chef, and the power blinked off. It happens now and then, but usually comes back on in a few minutes or an hour. This time we were in the middle of a hairy-bad summer storm with winds (at their peak rivaling a force-2 hurricane) that tossed mature trees around like a rock singer’s hair in the middle of a particularly intense video. Heavy rain crashed in from the west beating on the house like a stoned drummer.
Safe inside, we took a minute to reflect on the situation and rationalized that we would have electricity again in moments, or at least by the next morning. The wires in our part of town are all underground. No danger from downed trees or other interruptions. (But the neighbourhood would stay dark through the night.) We had lots of food in the house. No problem whipping up a supper of sandwiches and ginger ale – stuff that didn’t need cooking.
And, as the sun set amid the unaccustomed quiet of the emergency, I kept reaching for the light switch whenever I came into a room.
Sunday, May 22, 2022
Up at the crack of dawn. Then down again because it was too early, and we had no power to do any of the things we might otherwise do using powered appliances: washer and drier, dishwasher, coffee maker, microwave. Computers and internet. And on and on.
Breakfast? No problem. Just poured myself a bowl of Raisin Bran with milk and a little sugar. But mother, who at 97 is a creature of habit easily upset by any change in her routine – couldn’t have her usual oatmeal. No way to heat it. She didn’t quite understand at first, but by the end of the day, she had begun to comprehend the situation and stopped asking for coffee.
Lunch and supper were non-issues; still plenty of ‘cold’ stuff in the fridges, and the freezer contents were still solid, though not as cold as the day before.
I was starting to get used to grabbing a flashlight before trying to go anywhere in the house. Note to self: Glad we took Erin’s advice and bought a set of those tactical flashlights – the kind you can see from across the lake. Excellent battery life; they use LEDs.
Monday, May 23, 2022
Another day much like the one before. Except today, we had to clean out the fridges and throw away most of the stuff that was left in them. Everything was either ‘off’ or headed that way. Ugh.
Breakfast and Lunch same as day before. Mother REALLY wanted her oatmeal, and even suggested I could just make it with cold water. I explained that you have to cook the stuff to soften it and extract the starch that makes the dish creamy and heartwarming. Besides, there was no milk.
Supper was another matter. Sister Erin went on a safari trying to find an open supermarket, and listening to the car radio for details of the power restoration effort. No supermarkets were open, though one not far from us had ordered a rental generator and hoped to be open, with limited stock, the next day. Gas was available about 25 miles / 40 km away. And an Arby’s with a generator was open about 10 miles / 16 km to the west.
Erin toughed out a long Arby’s line-up to buy ‘supplies’: some Classic Roast Beef Sandwiches, several Turkey and Swiss, and a couple of Reubens. That proved to be enough to keep us in major meals (suppers), as it turned out, until the power came back on.
Still reached for the light switch when I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
We have had the Scrabble board set out on the dining room table since Sunday afternoon. I am currently trailing Erin 8 games to 3. I also found a deck of cards yesterday and have been driving myself crazy losing at Solitaire in the afternoons when Erin and Mom take their naps.
Erin (bless her heart!) made it out to an open coffee shop this morning and came back with the first java I have had since Saturday morning.
We were down to what remained of the Arby’s hoard, which we moved to the freezer. It was still cold enough to qualify as a fridge thanks to the slowly thawing mass of frozen stuff inside. We discovered early in the emergency that canned soft drinks stored on bare concrete the floor of the mechanical room downstairs stay fairly cold and palatable. No danger of spoilage, but you just can’t drink warm pop without choking on the ultra-explosive ‘fizz’.
Whoa! That would be a great Scrabble word – except you only get 1 ‘Z’ per letter set. The best I could do this afternoon was ‘FEZ’: 4+2+10 = 16; x 3 (Triple Word Score) = 48! Anyway…
Do NOT try to take your prescriptions with carbonated bevs of any kind. It’s like Mentos-plus-Coke. Ka-FOOM!
Supper: Another Turkey & Swiss sandwich. If the power doesn’t come back overnight tonight, we’ll have to see what that genny-equipped supermarket actually has for sale.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
I hear strange voices in the living room and it takes a few moments for everything to come together in my foggy mind. It is the TV, which was left ‘on’ when the power went off. That means the power has come back. And I can reset my bedside clock, which has been out since the weekend. My cell phone is getting bars again, and it shows the real time: 5:19 a.m.
I decide not to waste my awakening (which came in the middle of a dream, in which I was walking home from Toronto in my stocking feet, in the snow) and visit the bathroom. I grab the flashlight automatically, without really thinking about it. It takes a few moments in the bathroom before I realize I can just flip the room light on again.
Note to self: Fire up computer and print out sign to place on flashlight: “You don’t need me, now!”
Talking to Erin over breakfast, I suggest we invest in a generator before the next power outage.
“That’s what you said after the last one,” she points out.
But this time I’m serious. Really.
~ Maggie J.