The power went out around 11:00 on Monday morning. It went quietly. Stuff just disappeared from the computer screen. It wasn’t long before the quiet was pierced by the sound of sirens. It seemed like they were coming from every direction. My lunch wasn’t affected by the power situation. At 10:30 I had gotten hungry and eaten leftover turkey, potato, green bean casserole foraged from the freezer on Sunday. Delicious! It was brunch.
Cell phone service was still active, and texts were sent to colleagues about the power situation. After another half-hour, it was decided to use vacation time for the afternoon. I read a part of a chapter of a book on the couch in dim daylight. Curtains and drapes were opened for natural light, and the string broke on the honeycomb blinds. Three drawers were reorganized and things I thought had been donated were found and reallocated to the current donation pile. This was interesting for about 45 minutes, and I was ready to go to the office where there was electricity and climate control.
I texted the colleagues to say I was canceling the half-vacation day and coming in.
The ride downtown wasn’t bad. The traffic volume was light, and the signals in Dracut were functioning, but once I crossed the line back into Lowell some of them were out. Most people recognized the four-way stop process, so it was semi civilized.
The temperature was 57 and crept up to 62. Warm. Balmy. Wet. Windy.
The afternoon was well lit. Work happened. The cell phone was charged. There are three or four of us in the suite affected by the power outage, and maps and updates were consulted and compared.
As the time neared 5:00 and when we would normally flee the premises for home, we saw an update. The estimate for power to be restored was noon. December 21. Like, Thursday. As in, several days from now. Ugh. A later update scaled it to Wednesday, which is still pretty far away. A couple of us stayed late catching up on things, enjoying the modern conveniences, wondering what to do about dinner and morning showers and other practical considerations.
It could be an interesting night. Thank goodness I have a healthy stockpile of candles.
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