Lights out
The power went out last night about 9:30 p.m. We had just turned off the Twins game (a nice 7-2 victory over the Angels) when, suddenly, SNAP! Everything went dark, without a sound, all up and down the block. No transformer blowing, no explosion, just sudden deep darkness, as though someone, somewhere had thrown a switch.
"It's going to be a hot night," Doug said, as we started re-opening all the windows we had just closed and locked.
He found a flashlight, and I followed the bobbing beam up the stairs, where we dug out some candles. Then we found our way back down the stairs, careful not to step on either of the anxious, under-foot dogs. I went outside and stood on the front sidewalk, amazed at the darkness--there was no power on our street, no power as far as I could see. Just deep thick humid darkness, and the occasional flashlight-or-candle glow behind someone's window.
Overhead was thick cloud cover, which was too bad; I bet the stars were spectacular
Doug found a portable radio and a few more candles, and we all sat on the front porch, trying to catch a breeze and listening to WCCO. The poor sap who got the Friday night talk shift sounded utterly bored with himself and his topic, which was--ice cream. What's your favorite flavor? What toppings do you like? A little kid called in to talk about strawberry ice cream, and you could just feel the boredom wash over the announcer. "What kid calls talk radio?" Doug wondered, votive candles flickering on the table in front of him, dogs panting hard in the humid dark. "What kid listens to the radio?"
There was no breath of wind, and the porch windows were starting to cloud over with humidity. Really, there was nothing to do but go to bed. We went back upstairs and I crawled under the sheet. The air in the bedroom was hot and damp and the sheets quickly lost their cool. Boscoe panted at the foot of the bed, so uncomfortable in his dog suit. I dozed, awoke, tried to breathe in the close air. And then, SNAP! on came the power. We rushed around, turning on fans. Everything instantly felt better. I fell asleep, thinking, "I would have been a lousy pioneer."
