Lights Out

In our old neighborhood the power seemed to go out once or twice a week, usually right in the middle of the work day and for no apparent reason. They were usually quick little outages – a couple of minutes tops. They never caused any major problems, but they drove us batty. I was constantly resetting the clocks on the stove and microwave.

On hot summer evenings, the power would sometimes go out for an hour or two at a time. Too many people running their air conditioners. We’d fumble around for a flashlight, light some candles, and throw open the windows. If it went on for too long, we’d head to the grocery store for some midnight food shopping. It was kind of fun.

Now, when the lights go out, my heart skips a beat… or two. It’s only happened a few times so far, and only one time had the potential to be a real disaster. We were moving in our fish tank after a 5 hour car ride – we REALLY needed to get the fish into warm, filtered water, which is something you need electricity for. Thankfully, that outage only lasted a few minutes.

Another outage happened in the middle of the night. We probably wouldn’t have noticed until the next morning, except for some reason it caused lights that had been OFF to turn back ON when the power was restored. Weird.

The third power outage happened just a couple of hours ago. Dave was working at his computer, I was in the kitchen making lunch. Pretty typical mid-afternoon activities around here. My phone that had been charging on the counter beeped like it had been unplugged… and then I heard the heater kick off. Ugh. For good reason, I’m a little jumpy whenever that heater turns off. Several times, the power came back on for a few seconds and then went out again.

Hmm. Was it just our house, or was there an outage in the area? It’s not like we can look out the window to see if the lights are on at the neighbor’s house. Or glance down the road to see if the traffic lights are working. Because, you know, there are no traffic lights. And no real neighbors, for that matter. Checking for lights doesn’t really help in the middle of the day, anyway.

I called NYSEG to report the outage and see if I could get any more info. Of course, I never actually got to speak to a live person. I punched in my phone number, pressed ‘1′ to report the outage, pressed ‘2′ to let them know we weren’t in any immediate danger, and then was told I’d get a call back with more information.

At this point, we’d only been without power for about fifteen minutes, but the house was already noticeably colder. Sounds dramatic, but it’s true. And then I remembered that our well has an electric pump, so that meant no water. Fantastic. Luckily, it’s a pretty mild day – the sun is shining and the wind isn’t blowing. But it’s still winter in the Adirondacks.

Finally, after another fifteen minutes had passed, the lights flicked on (they had been OFF before, I swear), the refrigerator started to hum… and the heater fired up. Phew.

I’m sure these power glitches will become old hat after a while, but until I’m totally adjusted to small town, mountain living, I can do without them. In the meantime, remind me to buy a generator next time I’m in town.

And you know what? NYSEG never did call me back.