Val Has Regained Power

Our electricity went off at 8:47 on Tuesday night. It was not quite black dark yet. I was at the kitchen table, and said I didn't have a flashlight. Hick, reclining in his recliner, said he didn't have one, either.

"WHAT? It's right there on the table! Next to the arm of the couch."

Hick said he had to turn on his phone flashlight to find it, even though it is a big red metal flashlight that has been in the same place for years. He brought it to me, and went out to start the generator. It seemed to be taking a long time. So long that I had time to hobble to the bathroom, but not flush, because, you know, the well won't run without electricity, and we only get one flush with the water in the tank. You want to make it worth that flush!

Once I was out, Hick came in and switched on whatever he does to let some of the breakers run with generator power.

"So now I can flush, use the lights, TV, microwave, and my laptop. The refrigerator is on. But no oven, no washer/dryer..."

"And no air conditioner," said Hick as he turned it off, and I went to flush.

"What took so long? Was the generator not working? I just got a notice from the electric company that there are reports our power might be out. So somebody called it in."

"It didn't have no gas. So I had to go get some at the BARn. I'm going to town to make sure we have enough."

"You're putting on a shirt, aren't you? And real shoes?"

"I'll put on a shirt, but my Crocs are good enough."

Hick left around 9:15. Got back at 9:45.

"They have lights halfway up the hill from the mailboxes. So it's just us out here. I didn't see nothin'. Maybe a limb fell on the line, and shut it down. I didn't see no crews. And it's been an hour already."

The outage map showed 53 customers without power. That's us, up in our enclave. So I knew we would not be a high priority if more people were out somewhere else.

Hick said the generator could run 4 or 5 hours, and then everything would just go off. But that if I saw the dusk-to-dawn light come back on, or if the electric company sent an email saying power was back, to wake him so he could shut off the generator and reconnect regular power. That happened at 10:57.

I woke Hick. He went outside in his tighty-whities and camouflage Crocs. If you drive up our gravel road at night, avert your eyes!

The email said the cause of the outage was a tree limb. Hick thinks they just had to reset something on a pole down by the mailboxes. It only took so long because they hadn't assigned a crew, and then the crew had to drive about an hour to get here.