I Just Went Through Withdrawal
My electricity got turned off. No, not because I didn't pay my bill. It impacted several blocks in my neighborhood. When it first happened several of my neighbors stepped outside to try and see if anyone else was impacted. Some of us where, some of were not.
It was really strange sitting in the dark by candle and a camping light. Everything was extremely quite. I realized I haven't had total silence (for the most part) in years. My son's cat even got a little "needy". She comes to me some times when my son isn't home but this time she actually climbed on my pillow, which she usually doesn't do.
What withdrawal did I go through? Well it was a 2 1/2 almost 3 hour outage. The guys from the service provider had at least 6 trucks trying to narrow down the problem.
No electricity, no internet, no tv, no heat (even though I am on gas heat it is still hooked into the electric somehow, don't ask me, above my head, no lights, nothing. Well that isn't totally true, at least we still had water (although hot water was limited due to lack of electricity to heat the water up).
I have been in this house for over 15 years and I have never had this happen before. It kind of freaked me out. Then I got to thinking about all the stuff the North Eastern Coast of the US has gone through with all the snow. The media did not really cover power outages.
Some people from WA from those parts were able to post through those times. I can not image going days without the basics concerning electronic things. To me it is almost sad in a lot of ways.
Gone are the days of board games and sitting around the table talking (now we text).
Gone are the days of getting warm around a real fire (yes my house has a gas fireplace, in no way shape or form the same thing a a real fireplace)
Gone are the days of getting outside and doing things together without any interruptions. (meaning the days when no one had cell phones)
Maybe there are a few things we might want to consider re-introducing to our daily lives.
After all, who knows when the electric will go out and we no longer have our connections to the www to chat with, PM to, establish relationships with.
Just some fruits for thought coming to mind while everything was quite.
Electric is back on (obviously). The first thing I chose to do was to share with my WA family
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Glad you got you power back. I do know the feeling though, living here in Canada we go through it at least once in a Winter season or should I say at least twice in a whole year.
I wasn't use to it. In Germany I only faced a one time outage, when I came to my husband 15 years ago, I was confronted with outages on an on and off bases.
I adjusted, what else I can do. We always have candles and flashlights and a radio running on batteries. Now, I just go with it when it happens. Not thrilled but not getting mad anymore either. :)
We had a battery operated camping lantern and a few candles, no radio. My cell phone held a battery charge long enough for me to call the energy company to report the outage.
They reacted quickly and had it back up and running in under 3 hours.
I've lived in this house for 15 years and it is the first time it happened.
We often get power cuts here, being rural. Candles and wind up torches are always at the ready. I don't have a tele so don't miss that but I do miss the Internet!
It's not so bad though, extra jumpers on, curled up with a good book or just sitting enjoying the silence. :)
I came really close to reading by candlelight. If it had gone on for anther hour or so, I would have..
It is sad that technology that is suppose to make life easier in so many ways and give us the ability to do more and be in contact with others more easily in actuality has really just put everyone into a faster more disconnected pace for the most part. The meaningful relationships not being built are the ones that truly make life easier as we have friends to lean into. There is so much more hurt in the world today because of this sad loss of human hearts connecting.
I remember going to school, as some would say, uni, and we all would sit around the "commons areas" and talk about our classes, instructors, tests coming up, stress, etc.
Walk through a "commons area" these days and all you see are people on their cell phones texting people.
Yea, that is a sad truth. Years ago they said that one of the contributing factors to divorce was women working and not having the time to go have coffee or tea with their girlfriends like the stay at home mothers of years gone by did. That women that had those healthy friendships and that opportunity of communication were usually happier in their marriages. Whereas the working woman who doesn't take the time for such relationships often suffer with a lack of communication because most men are not detail conversationalist and don't provide what a woman needs in that area of life. Our society is reflecting the damage of these lack of meaningful human relationships in so many ways. It will get to a point that change will come I just pray it is before there is too much more devastation.
My mom grew up in the generation you are speaking of. She never went to college so it was important to her for her daughters to go to school.
I have 2 sisters and we all got degrees and entered the workforce while raising children. Both of my sisters have been married for over 20 years, me I divorced after 2 years of marriage. So I was a working single mother. Not ideal, yet we got through it and I think my son turned out pretty awesome.
I think I realized just how out of control things have gotten when my sisters and I took my parents out for dinner one night. My mom talks incessantly so we were not really having a conversation. My sisters meanwhile were texting it other (with their phones under the table) about how we were going to divide the bill up to cover my parents' meals.
My little sister sitting next to me realized I didn't have my phone and she elbowed me and said, get your phone out of your purse and look at it.
I thought to myself, "Wow".
How sad! Well it is good you see this as the issue it is and can help your son to see it!
Last winter this happened to us, the power was out for about 2 hours and my sisters and I went nuts. My parents lit some candles and we sat around talking. I think that was the most we actually talked in years, my parents were actually upset when the power came back on because even though it was cold and dark, it was one day that we all weren't separated in our rooms watching tv or on our laptops and phones. We had a great time without all of the gadgets we depend on today. Thanks for bringing back that memory Susie:)
I long for those days too. My 30 year old son lives with me, he was at work when it happened. He called to let me know he was on his was home and I told him about the electricity. He stopped and bought candles.
I thought about pulling out the board games. We do still have them, they are just sitting in the garage now.
If we would have had some board games, that would have been awesome. Hold on to them Susie, never know when you'll need them.
We gave all of our board games to my nieces and nephew, but I think I'm gonna buy at least one, just in case:)
Ha! Ha! you must live in South Africa. We have intermittent, so called "load shedding" where electricity can be off for an hour or two a day for weeks on end! Must say as long as it's predictable, I quite like it, as it definitely forces one to see what the 'real world' still looks like. (I was brought up with no electricity until 17yrs, so used to candles, lamps etc:)
It is a very interesting thought Susie. Many people all over the world -millions in fact - do not have access to basics every day. I was travelling in Africa once and for miles the only sign of human life in the darkness were groups huddled around fires - it really struck me how life is for many people and always was before electricity was invented! The things we take for granted.....!
I can recall when I was in high school in a rural area of Oklahoma being without power for several days. We used Coleman lights and Coleman cookstove.. My husband, from Detroit, MI... can not deal with power outages.
We had a Coleman light. Everyone in the house pretty much dealt with it ok. Only one of my roommates got a bit strange when she realized her cell phone battery was fixing to go out.
Yeah How did we ever survive BC (Before Cellphones) ? Or Microwave Ovens? Or home computers?....??? Sure do Not want to go back there!!!
I am sorry to hear that but at the same time I'm happy that you got your electricity back. What can we say, it's a digital world we're living in now. Sometime you think when can I go without having a phone etc to have a quite time for myself. I hardly do that anymore unless I live in a jungle without any connections to the world. Lol! thanks Drsusie for sharing.
I really only find it when I scuba dive. Unfortunately for health reason I haven't been in about 3 years. Can't wait to get back to it.
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Interesting. I live in the country where power outages are common. If the wind blows, the power goes out. I never got used to all the distractions. I don't have a smart phone or cable tv. I love the silence and seek it out in caves and float tanks. Solitude has its perks. :)
The solitude did bring me back to remembering some really awesome times with my son camping with the Boy Scouts. The wind, the trees, even the bugs chirping.
The only other place I felt the solitude was when I went scuba diving. Nothing like the deep blue water and swimming with schools of fishes.