Blackout.
Entry posted by DesDownunder
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So we had a storm tonight. It blew over a tree somewhere, and rain was released in a deluge that lasted long enough to dump nearly an inch of water. Lightning lit the sky somewhere over the Antarctic and evidently struck havoc on the power lines to my neighbourhood -right as I was making a post about Windows 7. The computer died and the lights went out. The room was black, cold and very, very dark.
I couldn't see a thing. I dismissed the idea I had died in a hurry. Perhaps I should rephrase that. I dismissed in a hurry, the idea that I had died.
Anyway I blindly felt my way around the house till I found the emergency flash-light. Well something had died, the battery. I shook the flash-light and it came to life, sort of, with a weak beam that enabled me to see my way to the phone. The phone had died too. No wait a minute, it was the wireless phone I had picked up, and I realised that it needed mains power to operate. It's handy having been an electrician, we know about these things.
Stealthily I made my way across the kitchen into the sun room. Sun-room? You have to be joking, it was pitch black outside , the sun light had died hours ago.
And the overcast skies were too busy crying rain upon the earth. The sun room was as dark as a Mayan tomb in 2012. I pulled back the curtain and peered outside, but all I could see were black silhouettes of trees against a dark grey sky. No lights in the house next door, no street lights, no sign of Man's conquest of the night, nothing.
What dark and evil place is this planet in its night, without even a star for a friend.
It was as if I was the last man on Earth. Hurriedly I scampered across the debris of the modern demolition that represented my attempt at interior design. I tried the flash-light again and a weak beam, a little stronger than before searched the room looking for the hard-wired phone, the one I bought at a sale for $5. I found it under a newspaper that was trying to imitate a shroud.
I lifted the phone and found the dial tone working. I pushed buttons until it rang a number and then I heard the voice of my darling. Quickly I warned him of the impending doom, that 2012 had arrived early, that life as we knew it was over. "What?" he asked. He never takes me seriously unless we are ...well never mind about that, this is not one of those episodes, it has a different climax.
I warned him that the power was gone and we would have to cuddle to keep warm when he arrived home. "What?" he asked again as if we had never done anything like that during the time we lived in the house where we could actually see each other. "Just drive home carefully," I told him, "the lights are out."
"er...er," he stammered somewhat quizzically. "The street lights are out, and our power has died," I explained. "Can you bring the spare flash-light home with you please?"
"Oh, okay. I understand now," he replied, "see you when I get there."
I told him okay and hung up the phone.
I slid open the glass door and the strangely growing strength of the the flash-light beam died as it tried to find some life in the back yard other than the deluge from the skies. I grabbed the umbrella by the door and stepped outside. I swept mine eyes across the wilderness of my back yard. So this was what it was like before we discovered fire, oil and electricity. Shadows of trees lit by the moon diffused through rain clouds. How terribly lonely, frightening...lightning lit the sky and it was easy to believe anything. Rain avoided the umbrella and ran down my cheeks, and I cried for what might have been. (Well, I didn't actually, but it sounds good.)
I was so relieved to see his car drive into the garage, that I ran down and closed the gates. Arm in arm we walked back to the house and sat in our darkened sun room.
"I'll make coffee," I said.
"How?" he asked, "There's no power."
"The gas stove still works," I explained.
Five minutes later we were sitting romantically, sipping coffee in the dimness of our once brilliantly lit sun room. I could tell he was smiling at me, enjoying the silence of what for all we knew, was the end of times.
And then the lights came on, the power was back on. Civilisation has returned, we live, we live!
I rushed in and switched on the computer, Windows 7 quickly booted and Firefox sprung to life with the page I was working on, text still intact. Amazing!
Okay so what happened to the boyfriend? I cooked his dinner and he watched a movie while I typed this up.
So I tell you the same as I told him, don't say I don't think of you, even if it isn't the end of the world.
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