It’s Like Revolution, Only Without Charlie

It was 3:20pm when the power went out, Modern Philosophers.

I had been sensing that it was coming based upon comments by fellow Mainers on Facebook.  Since the Boy Scouts had raised me to always be prepared, I cranked the heat to warm The House on the Hill in the event the blackout hit here.  I then quickly finished the blog post I was writing, and headed to the kitchen to saute the veggies needed for dinner.

The peppers and mushrooms were almost done when the lights went out.  Luckily, the vegetable oil was hot enough to finish the job.

I made sure the flashlights and candles were handy, explained what was happening to Cali and Luna, and then decided to head outside to shovel snow.  Even though I hate that task, there wasn’t much I could do inside during a blackout.  Plus, all that physical activity would work up a sweat and keep me from being cold.

The street was eerie because of the dark, stormy sky, and the lack of light coming from any of the other houses.  The streetlights were out as well, so the only light was from the headlights of the occasional car that dared venture up my hill.

My thoughts drifted to the show “Revolution” and I wondered how those folks adapted to life without power.  All I could think about was how much I wanted to watch the football game, and how I hoped my DVR would still record “The Walking Dead” even if the power didn’t come back online in time.

Since I was thinking about “Revolution”, my thoughts also drifted to Charlie, my TV crush and the only reason I’d ever subject myself to life in a blackout.  Now if Charlie had been with me at The House on the Hill, football and Zombies would have been the last thing on my mind.

Alas, there was no Charlie, so the power outage just sucked.  After an hour of shoveling, (the stuff piled at the end of the driveway by the town plow was quite the chore to clear!) I headed back inside.  I’d left a flashlight out on the porch, so at least I wasn’t plunging into total darkness.

Once I’d changed into dry clothes, I lit a candle and wandered around The House on the Hill with candle in tow.  The trick was to not step on a cat’s tail or leave the candle someplace where the kitties could set the place ablaze.  I managed to get my clothes ready for work tomorrow and feed the kitties by candlelight.

Then I posted a status update to Facebook, commenting that I was doing that by candlelight, too, just like the first colonists had to do.

At that point, I ran out of ideas.  I knew if I were on “Revolution”, I’d have bad guys to kill, but I was just a simple Modern Philosopher, sitting in the dark as a snowstorm howled wildly outside.

So I did the only thing that made sense: I sprawled out on the couch for a nap.  About two minutes after I closed my eyes, the living room light went on and the furnace began to hum.

That was how I survived the Great Sunday Blackout of 2014.  I just wish Charlie had been there, too..