response a little late...
...but better than never, and when's better than when you've had espresso at 6pm, coupled with lots of other sources of caffeine and can't even hope to get to sleep right this second...
Last night there was a small power outage. There we were, in the living room, watching the gong show that is the American Idol audition process and neeeerrrrooommmmm... power goes out... We sit there in silence for a second or two, and ask the rhetorical question: "Did the power just go out?" then make the standard request, "Open the front door, see if it's out on the entire street". And we do. Just like when I was a kid. Just like when I was at the farm- "look down the road, and see if you can see the Bradley's light over the hill"- But this time instead of fumbling to find the oil lamp & matches we temporarily lit up the room with the screens of two laptops, and made the trek to the front door & upstairs to find candles by the clever light of multiple cell phones. We found many candles, set them up around the living room, and talked. Just sat and talked. About nothing in particular- the neighbours whose kitchen we can see into. those neighbours that many of us have seen makin' out in said kitchen... about how long we would wait before going and finishing off the ice cream in the freezer. about classes tomorrow, and how if the power didn't come back on we weren't going... about what they would do with all those kids in rez if Ontario experienced another Blackout (with a capital 'b'). I don't know how much time passed. I don't know how long the power was out. And even though I needed to send off -then- incomplete documents via email that night, I felt a little sad when the fire alarm beeped with its resetting and the lights came back on... but I smiled to myself with memories old & new when I walked into my bedroom and saw my alarm clock flashing "12:00".
Last night there was a small power outage. There we were, in the living room, watching the gong show that is the American Idol audition process and neeeerrrrooommmmm... power goes out... We sit there in silence for a second or two, and ask the rhetorical question: "Did the power just go out?" then make the standard request, "Open the front door, see if it's out on the entire street". And we do. Just like when I was a kid. Just like when I was at the farm- "look down the road, and see if you can see the Bradley's light over the hill"- But this time instead of fumbling to find the oil lamp & matches we temporarily lit up the room with the screens of two laptops, and made the trek to the front door & upstairs to find candles by the clever light of multiple cell phones. We found many candles, set them up around the living room, and talked. Just sat and talked. About nothing in particular- the neighbours whose kitchen we can see into. those neighbours that many of us have seen makin' out in said kitchen... about how long we would wait before going and finishing off the ice cream in the freezer. about classes tomorrow, and how if the power didn't come back on we weren't going... about what they would do with all those kids in rez if Ontario experienced another Blackout (with a capital 'b'). I don't know how much time passed. I don't know how long the power was out. And even though I needed to send off -then- incomplete documents via email that night, I felt a little sad when the fire alarm beeped with its resetting and the lights came back on... but I smiled to myself with memories old & new when I walked into my bedroom and saw my alarm clock flashing "12:00".