I got home the other night, and the power was out. The house was pitch black. Not only that, but the whole street was black except for a few solar lights glowing in some front yards. There were also trucks with blinking orange lights going slowly up the street. It was eerie. Eerie…and wrong.
Something wasn’t right – to say the least.
My attendant and I got into the house using the light on her phone. Hooray for her phone and that light, for one of my flashlights was out of batteries, and I couldn’t find the other one. And a big hooray for my back-up battery that I got a few months ago.
Otherwise, the mattress that I use was deflating. And that was no good.
I led my attendant to my office, with the help of the light on her phone, and showed her the battery. She fumbled around a bit and managed to plug in a lamp. It worked! Hooray! Then she push the battery (it’s on wheels) over to my bed and plugged in the mattress, which began to fill with air. Hooray! This, along with the lamp, was a huge help.
After brushing my teeth and draining my urine bag in the half-light from the lamp in my bedroom, my attendant got me ready for the night in my bed. I was upset that I couldn’t use my ceiling fan (it wasn’t warm, but I sleep better with a fan on, especially when it’s cloudy, as it was), and there were those weird orange lights and also what sounded like talking outside. It was all upsetting and disorienting, but, surprisingly, I felt asleep before too, too long.
After a good night’s sleep – also surprising – I awoke to find that my ceiling fan was still off. When I got up, my attendant – another attendant – confirmed that, yes, the power was still off and said that there were trucks down the street. Really? That was a long time without power!
After I was dressed and in my wheelchair, my attendant moved the battery back into my office and plugged in my computer. It worked – yay! – but I couldn’t get online. Perhaps it would work after breakfast?
Nope. It was a reminder that my internet depends on electricity – and that I should by the battery for it that I had decided not to buy. Or get a hot spot like my attendant had on her phone?
Suddenly, I was exhausted. Suddenly, I had no power and was deflated like my mattress now was. I felt defeated.
I couldn’t do what I had planned to do that morning, which depended on being online. It was unusually cool and wet, so I couldn’t go out and enjoy the morning.
For a short time, I couldn’t pivot. I couldn’t think of anything else to do. My mind was blank, and I was suddenly a child, bored with nothing to do.
I eventually decided to do some writing (working on this post, in fact). At least my computer was worked. I then had plans to go out for a few hours in the afternoon. When I returned, the power still wasn’t on - ! – and I decided, like a petulant child, to read on my Kindle on my speech device. I was worried about the power not being on yet. Remarkably, the back-up battery still had plenty of power, but I didn’t want to have another night dependent on it.
The power finally came back on a bit before 7, after nearly 23 hours. 23 hours.
Yes, I was fine, but I wasn’t happy. More than that, I was rattled. I often complain, half-jokingly and apparently in the abstract, about how my life is on my computer and about how much I rely – for my wheelchair, my mattress, not to mention the lights and all that – on electricity, but this wasn’t abstract, and it was no joke.
It was also a reminder to get lights with batteries and a battery for my internet!
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