Sunday, March 22, 2020

Crisis Du Jour


It turned out not to be that big a deal, but just when I think March 2020 can't get any worse, what with the global Trump flu pandemic, the economy in free fall, no sports, and a full one-fifth of the nation under mandatory lockdown, this morning the power goes out.

It's bad enough that I'm under self-imposed quarantine (today's Day 9) and that I'm going through this solo - the equivalent of home solitary confinement - but at least I have television and the internet as my companions.  Or at least I did until 8:07 a.m..  

I was awake, snoozing through the clock radio's NPR morning news broadcast, when suddenly the radio stopped and the heat cut off.  I knew instantly that it was - I'm grown accustomed to it.  The power  was out again, and it wasn't even raining.  

Looking out the front door, I didn't see any trees down.  No power company trucks.  On my phone, the Georgia Power website didn't give any indication there was a problem in the area until I filled out the Report A Power Outage form, and then suddenly it popped up - over 1,000 homes in the area were in the dark.

I went back to sleep (what else was there to do?) and just as I got up again a little after 9:00, the power came back on.  See?  I said it was no big deal.

But that one hour . . . wondering if response time would be delayed because of personnel shortages at the utility due to the pandemic.  Thinking what a day alone in self quarantine would be like without electricity, without the radio, without television, without the internet, without lights.  Oh my god - without coffee!

But the lights came on and everything's fine.  It's as if the power company was just reminding us who was really in charge of things around here.

Okay. What fresh hell do we have next?

1 comment:

misslesley said...

Those thoughts have occurred to me, too. Several times I’ve thought, “Well at least this isn’t like a tropical storm/snow day. At least I’ve got the internet/the radio, and yes, coffee. I’ve also thought that, although living alone can get a bit spidery in your head, at least I’m not having to deal with a houseful of other people also staying at home involuntarily. And, y’know, I’m so used to my own company that this isn’t really that difficult - at least while the power is on.