Power Outage (December 5, 2013)

Here are the facts:

—Presently, the temperature outside is near fifteen degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) and the sun has not yet clawed through the mountains on the eastern horizon.

—All electric power suddenly dropped out at my house about two and a half hours ago, seemingly dumping me instantly into a black and silent box.

—A while ago I located an old kerosene lamp that I inherited from my mother.  The lamp and my ill temper (which I sometimes adopt for a day or so at a time) are about all I inherited from her.  I am writing this by the wan and oddly wavering light of the lamp.  Every so often I must adjust the wick of the lamp upward to brighten the ever-dimming flame.

—The suggestion to regularly check all battery operated flashlights for function makes more sense to me now.

—Twenty pounds of housecat (Splash) is sitting at my feet wondering why my rapidly cooling house is creaking, moaning, and on occasion popping knuckles deep inside the walls and above the ceiling as the bitter cold from the outside pushes in on us.  He is also wondering why we are not listening to the Silversun Pickups or alt-J on the stereo as we normally do at this time.

I just told him: “It’s the power, dude.  Not me.”

—The temperature inside me house lowered about seven degrees in two hours.  At the present rate of temperature drop, the interior of my house will reach zero in about eighteen hours.  I will brave the outside, fire-up a portable generator and plug in my boiler when the sun rises full if power is not restored by then.

—I am thinking about that dark blue polyester coat I had as a kid.  I wore that thing constantly.  Inside.  Outside.  Winter.  Summer.  I think it basically rotted off me.  “Why do you always wear that thing?” one of my sisters once asked me. 

“It is warm,” I answered.

I would like to have that coat back on me about now.

--Mitchell Hegman

NOTE: my power finally came back on after about four hours.