I was happily prancing around in sleepy land when suddenly... the noise stopped. Dagnabbit. Either I forgot to pay my power bill, or another drunk in an SUV hit a utility pole in front of the Dunkin Donuts again (this happens quite often in my town). Pitch black darkness. I keep a wind up flash light next to my bed for these emergencies. I use to keep a battery powered flash light but... the batteries are obviously designed to go dead IMMEDIATELY during any type of power failure. There must be some kind of electromagnetic field detector in the batteries or the flash light that know instantly there is no electricity and then they instantly drain. Only explanation. So I bought a wind up flash light with a radio. One very annoying thing about this flash light. It has a "siren" on it. A button on the EXACT OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE LIGHT BUTTON. This is a very poor design. It's pitch black. You grab your trusty flash light and can't see properly... push the button... and... EEEEEHHH AAAAAHHHHHH EEEEEEEHHHHH AAAAHHHHHH EEEEEEEHHHHHH, along with a scary flashing strobe light. Was this a joke? Does the inventor get a chuckle thinking about all the heart attacks he causes? Imagine some burglar hitting the wrong button. Actually the winding process is almost as loud as the siren.
So anyway, after finally shutting off the siren and pushing the CORRECT button I go downstairs to make sure, 1) I didn't blow a fuse, 2) there is no notice on my door for not paying my electric bill, or 3) there are a bunch of people with wind up flash lights wandering around through their houses like me at 4:30 in the AM. When I get downstairs I see that both computers are still on. What the...? The computers are on a separate circuit so when I blow a fuse from overloading the air conditioner they stay on. BUT... I recently got a big UPS so maybe they are running off of the battery. Yup. Battery is blinking and beeping. Both computers are fine and dandy. I go to shut them down... but... dagnabbit! I have a dual monitor set up and one of the monitors is not in the UPS. The darn monitor that IS on won't show me the shut down menu for the PC. Dang shut down menu appears on the monitor that is off. Dagnabbit. I assume correctly that I picked "shut down" the last time and just hit the return key. The computer shuts down, I turn off the UPS... total and complete darkness. <sigh>. That dang flash light siren really got my blood pumping. Too much adrenaline to just go back to bed, so I crank up the flash light some more and go to the window to see if there are any SUVs wrapped around any utility poles (or notices on the door).
I can see immediately this is a legitimate power outage. First clue; no street lights. Second clue; either there is a convention of burglars in town and they all hit the same neighborhood or all my neighbors on the other side of the street are looking for THEIR fuse boxes with wind up flash lights (they MUST be wind up flash lights. As I said, regular flash lights have those "detectors" and never work when the power goes out.). I watch as the lights bob up and down... up stairs... downstairs... in the kitchen, check the fridge (no fridge light but you can tell they are looking in the fridge). It's quite interesting... and... since I had no internet it was the only entertainment available.
I then noticed that some of the bobbing lights started to come out of the houses and bob down the street. It reminds me of that scene from "Spirited Away" when all the spirits wake up to go get a bath. Of course. 4:30 AM. My whole neighborhood empties out by 7:30. Lots of early risers. Now I'm totally awake. No chance of getting back to sleep. I then realize that my phones won't work either. They are plugged in. So I drag out the trusty old phone that gets power from the phone lines and hook it up. You know, just in case it's NOT a power failure and John and Sarah call to say they are holding a spot for me on the bus back to Alaska to wait out the rapture (you never know). So finding and hooking up the phone kills about 10 minutes. Then I sit down at the dark computer monitor and for about 10 or 15 minutes move the mouse around and pretend to check my email, browse the web, read the A:M forum. I realize that there is probably about 2 hours of power still left in the UPS battery. I could hook up the modem and the computer if I get really desperate. That relieves some of my anxiety.
The flash light is starting to dim so I crank it for a few minutes... <sigh> I turn off the siren AGAIN and tune in a station on the radio to see if there are any emergency broadcast warnings. No warnings. I guess it isn't the end of the world. For some reason I always assume the worst possible scenario when the power goes off; alien invasion, Armageddon, Jesus returning. Strangely, I'm always relieved... and actually... a tiny bit disappointed when none of those things happen. It would certainly be a nice diversion from the economy and the crazy election nonsense.
The sun is starting to come up. I hear my neighbors rousting the kids out of bed for school and others getting ready to leave for work. I hear car doors slamming and cars driving away. It's so strange. Everything is normal yet all of those people are in the dark just like me. I even imagine I smell fresh brewed coffee (one of my neighbors brews coffee every morning). The smell of coffee isn't real. My mind created it... dang... coffee... mmmm.... coffee. Time for a WAWA run. I'm kind of hungry too. A sausage egg and cheese Sizzly pancake sandwich sounds like an EXCELLENT idea.
At the WAWA I see one of my neighbors who works there. All the lights are on. "The power's out right?" I ask. "Oh yeah. We have a generator." she replies. "Good. Just checking." I get my coffee, orange juice, and breakfast sandwich and when I get back home... THE POWER'S BACK ON! If I hadn't woken up I would never have known. I turn on the computer and sit down... and suddenly... I'm very very sleepy. DAGNABBIT! It's just like the dang flash light batteries! I can't sleep when the power is out. But there's nothing to do. As soon as the power's back on THEN I get sleepy. So annoying. I will have to take a nap this afternoon for sure.
So that UPS worked like a charm, the world didn't end, AND I got a yummy breakfast sandwich. All in all an interesting way to start the day. It could have been worse... if I had to sit next to Sarah on the bus it would have been very awkward.
-vern