This probably isn't too rare for apartment buildings, but my building has certain emergency lights that aren't usually on and can't be switched on by the residents, but they're hooked up to a special emergency generator. So paradoxically, if you see that they are on, you know there's been a power failure. I came home today and saw that these lightbulbs had tripped on. Those and the lights behind the EXIT signs, which are apparently indispensable either way.
Needless to say I wasn't too happy to find out that we were without electricity on what will probably be one of the hotter days of the year. But there was nothing to do for it but wait for the guys from National Grid--who were already working on the street--to fix it. I read outside while waiting. At one point I looked up at a neighbor's window fan and saw the blades spinning, but it turned out that the wind was blowing them, then it would stop. But after some time I poked my head in and saw that it was dark. Again paradoxically, this was a good sign.
2 comments:
While having a power outage is never convenient it's easier to take when you've already been out and about in daylight and you know the places you've visited had lights and all the rest. What's stranger, at least for overimaginative me, is when the power goes off when you're already at home. Then I'd be looking out the window and up and down the street to see if it's just our house, or the neighborhood, or the whole city - maybe the country, but what if it's the whole world?
It usually gets restored fairly quickly and soon we go back to our usual routine. We had a number of outages when we were in Halifax, a few that lasted hours for no apparent reason we ever found out about. The emergency lights in the hallways were handy since otherwise there's be total darkness outside our door on even the brightest days. One of our neighbors there came by and told us about a trick she'd discovered about the emergency power and that was that the electric outlets in the halls also had power. So when she wanted something hot to drink she'd plug her electric kettle in one near her apartment. Some people are more clever than others.
An interesting change has taken place in my lifetime. When I was a kid it was pretty routine to have power failures in inclement weather. A really big storm, say a hurricane, could knock your electricity out for a couple of days. In recent years that hasn't happened. The lines apparently have enough security and backup so that you'll probably keep your lights and everything through any kind of storm except for the apocalyptic flooding kind. But what you do see are pieces of the grid just going out now and then. And I have indeed been around when at least most of the city went dark. It's an awe-inspiring sensation.
The power failure you had in Halifax sounds similar. It's kind of cool that your neighbor had an idea of what to do about it. Wonder how long it took her to figure that one out. There's something to be said for just tinkering around when your plans are put on hold.
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