Stygian Darkness

Random notes from the powerless. Do you know how dark it gets at night? When there are not street lights, no night lights, no illumination from clock radios, or LED lights from computers, etc. Dang! Its Dark! I was thinking of Stygian Darkness as I stumbled to the bathroom the other night. And, amazingly enough. One candle makes all the difference!

Things learned:

1. When you're cold. Cold water makes it bone-chilling cold!

2. You can't have enough candles. We've been reading by candle light at night. The tapers give off the most light down to the page, but burn faster than the fat ones. I went to a hardware store for a paint brush to finish the cabinets at Adam's house. I heard the clerk say: "If it heats or lights.... we don't have it." No candles, no batteries, no flashlights, no heaters, no generators.

3. When the need arrives, the time for preparation is past. So many people are discovering the need. My neighbor quoted a lady she talked to: "I wish now I had not bought those clothes I don't need and I'd spent the money on a generator." We are SOOOO grateful for our generator. It allows us to get on line, to do laundry, to take a WARM shower, to cook.

4. You can't use a gas oven with the power off if it has electronic ignition. We kept the power on to turn on the oven. But when it gets to temperature, it turns off... and doesn't come back on. We had a little underdone bread the first day.

5. An emergency radio is really useful. We've cranked ours up and listened to news. However.... plastic cranks break if cranked too vigorously.

6. Keep your gas tanks half full or more. Tom had just filled up. How great to know we didn't have to wait in lines for gas. For the first few days the stations were without power and you couldn't get gas.

7. Colored glow sticks are for fun, not illumination. If you want even a "nightlight" kind of illumination, get the untinted ones.

Time for the generator to go off. The icicles are off the clothes line and today the sun is out. I think I'll try hanging the laundry outside today. Church is canceled tomorrow. It still has no power either.