I was at work when the power went out. And it didn't go out out. It flickered a lot. Lights flickered a lot. Power would come in and out. And we thought it was just us. Then our salesman, Bob, called said he was having a major problem. Then someone had a radio, it became clear that it wasn't just us.
I got sent home. Traffic wasn't so bad because I go in the opposite direction as traffic going home. Power was out in my condo, too. It was still cool from being air conditioned all day.
I have this dinky little radio that I got in Baltimore. I donated 10 bucks to some children's charity and they gave me a dinky radio and a cd case. Listened to Bloomberg talk.
I made some phone calls. Aimee doesn't answer. Colleen doesn't answer. They're both in the city. I called mom. Mom has no power.
*69'd Jay. Jay has power. Said I'd see him for Mike's wedding in 2 weeks.
This neighbor guy, Jacob, asked me if I had eaten. And he invited me to join his family in the park for a barbecue. It was like 8pm. I'd eaten a granola bar. So, I hop in their car and they go out to this nearby park I didn't know about, Schmidt's Woods.
The light was going fast and Jacob got the charcoal going. This guy came by and said that this was a good idea. By the time the coals were ready, it was pretty dark. My night vision must suck because Jacob was still seing fine. He noticed this skunk and scared it away. All I saw was a shadow.
We had hot dogs and chicken breasts. No rolls. He toasted some sliced 7 grain bread. It tasted really good. While we were grilling, the lights came on in the park and in the neighborhood around the park. Hooray! The lights were on! I finally got a good look at the skunk that was stalking us. As we ate, he moved in a big circle around us.
In addition to meat and toast, we had pickles and pickled pepper. When we came home, it was still dark. Which upset us.
I went to bed early. I had a cool little flashlight that I got in Missouri. I felt like a burgler in my own house. I opened a window in front and another right next to me bed. It had warmed up from today and was uncomfortably hot. I couldn't sleep for a while. I tried again to make some phonecalls to folks in the city but nobody answered. I entertained myself by playing with the flashlight. Drawing patterns of light on the ceiling. I slept horizontally at the top of the bed with my body next to the open window. I turned on a reading lamp just so I would know when the power comes back.
I regret that. The power came back on around 2:21am. And the light woke me up. I just turned it off and went back to sleep.
I don't know if it's general new york attitude or 9/11, it seemed like people were generally blasé about the whole thing.
Hmmm, the milk tastes okay. I think I'll keep it.
Posted by joel at August 15, 2003 06:39 AM