Overheard During the Power Out Last Week
Scene: It’s a warm summer evening on the southern tip of Puget Sound. It’s a rare clear night and, with the power out and street lamps dark, you can even see the stars. I am walking along the streets in my t-shirt and shorts. It’s a little muggy. I live in an upper-middle class neighborhood…lots of manicured lawns, two-car garages, clean sidewalks, two-story houses.
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Woman in a white skirt walking her little dog, to her neighbor on the front porch: (bitterly) Well, how do you like living in a third world country?
Neighbor: This is crazy. There’s no reason for the power to be out on a street like ours.
Woman: I know. It’s unacceptable. I called the power company and they said they have power out to 982 customers right now, and I told them I DON’T CARE THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!
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Man talking on his cell phone as he walks past me: It’s weird. I’m on my way to this dinner party and all the power is out on the street. I feel so exposed in the dark.
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I walk past a house running their generator. The power has been out for about an hour. They have their loud generator running and through the window I can see that they are sitting in the living room with the lights on. Mom, Dad, and teenage son are all reading something. Because god forbid that they should have to leave the lights out and actually talk to each other or something. But I was less cynical about that family tableau when I walked another block and came to the second neighborhood generator. In that house, none of the lights were on, and all I could see through the window was the blue flicker of the large television set.
It’s hard to have a positive attitude about people in general.
September 10th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Oh, man. Power outages were some of my favorite times when I was a kid. Of course that had a lot to do with the possibility of school being cancelled (not that I minded school, but still…) I don’t remember ever having the power go out in the summer though.
It must have been nice to see the stars without streetlights in the way. I was at an event in a intentional community that didn’t have any street lights (and it was out in the country a bit) and you could see the stars great (where you were away from the trees anyway), it was awesome.
Maybe you could pretend that most of the people you didn’t see/hear was because they were enjoying their time together. It is a stretch, but surely at least some of them were. There is a guy on a mailing list I’m on who has regular “power outage” days with his family. They turn off the circuits that aren’t too inconvenient (e.g. they leave the fridge on) and enjoy the day/night with candles, stories, etc.
September 11th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Hey Jonathon, Thanks for the more positive perspective. You’re right, it’s easy to focus on the stuff I see and forget that there’s a lot I don’t see. I think planned “power out” days are a great idea
September 12th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
You know, it gives me a more positive attitude to think that my sister is so cool and enlightened that she picks up on scenes like this. YOU were one of the people enjoying the power outage. So much so that you noticed those other people that were so out of place.