Electricity just came back on here, a little over twenty-four hours after it went away, which is just about long enough to ruin the bulk of what's in the refrigerator. A weary crew of D.W.P. workers has been outside for about three hours. I kept taking bottles of water out to them and apologizing because the H2O wasn't chilled. "My power is out," I told them…as if they didn't know that better than anyone. One told me he there were so many outages around town that he was on a triple-shift — well into his third consecutive eight-hour stint. Tough way to make a living…especially working thirty feet above the asphalt in a little basket attached to a crane arm.
While waiting for power to be restored, I mused on how much of my life — not just professionally but personally — is entwined with computers and how I have trouble functioning when I don't have access to one. The battery on my laptop lasted only so long and after it went out, I was rather paralyzed. Never mind not being able to write all the scripts and assignments and e-mails I have to write. It was worse than that. A thought would come up and my first instinct would be to go Google the topic for further info and —
Whoops. Can't do that. Can't do a lot of things I need to do. Fortunately, I have my new Blackberry so I was able to do some of the more vital e-mail and to even post a little here, plus I have my whole phonebook on it. About an hour ago, I was sitting here in my office, talking to someone on my Bluetooth-enabled cellphone/PDA interfacing with my Bluetooth headset. I was the picture of high-tech splendor except, of course, that I was sitting in the dark without electricity.
Anyway, it's good to be whole again…though I think I'll keep a flashlight handy and wait a while before I start resetting clocks. Just in case.