When the lights went out........
Last Sunday Night the power-surgically, with great and
deafening silence-turned off our refrigerator, TV, computers, dishwasher and dryer,
while leaving our light fixtures a mere half glow of themselves. It was like
Mother Nature was warning us to reject technology with all it's entertainment
value and work reducing niceties-to stop, and pay attention. We did, and asked each other out loud. "Did
you just feel that?"
A short time later, everything went black. Gone was even the
amber, half-glow of our living room (proudly Steampunked) lamps. Replaced was the blackest of black with nary
a blinking LED to remind us of the trons that are always communicating
something to someone, somewhere....everything went dark....dead....and silent.
After assessing that there was no fire (or Zombies)
anywhere
in our home. We ventured outside in to the thick emptiness of the night now
alive with human lightening bugs shining their hand-held flashlights into the
eyes of neighbor after neighbor, emerging from the comfortable nests of our
anonymous homes. Many of us, meeting for the first time. 
"Are you ok?" We called out and they echoed back. We
were meeting people we have lived 2 doors down from, for 2 years and never said
"Hello" to, until this evening when the uncertainty of the dead power
grid left us all feeling insecure and in good company with our shared concerns
for ourselves and each other.
"Is the wife ok, Cole?" we asked our elderly next-door
neighbor whose wife June is on oxygen. "Yup. She's got enough portable tanks to get her through till daylight. What
the hell happened?" Said our ex-Military, gruff as they come, neighbor. We answered in the same voice that echoed all
up and down our street. "We have no idea what happened."
More hominid life forms entered the street with faces lit up
by cell phone luminescence. All of us desperate to put an "Ah-ha, that's
what happened", on the increasingly growing panic in the community forming
in the cul-de-sac. Then messages starting coming in via cell phone from
Facebook (the bastion of all misinformation)....100,000 + people without power-
Explosion at the nuclear power plant-Someone hit a transformer-Possible
terrorist attack at Vandenburg Air Force Base- (and my personal favorite) The
moon has knocked all the satellites out of orbit.... i.e. Armageddon.
A lit cigarette ember with a trajectory towards me, sent me
scrambling back into the safety of my darkened home to avert an attack of
allergic anaphylaxis but to also assess our readiness to get the hell of out of
dodge, in case any of those Facebook power outage apocalypse rumors were true.
Cat carriers-Check
Cat food, water for cats and bowls for them to eat and drink
out of-Check
Portable liter box-Check
Now that we knew our "children" were in readiness
to be evacuated in the relative spoiled care they have grown accustomed to. It
was now time to asses the human "Go Bags" or "Bug-Out Bags"
as the Ready-for-anything, Survivalists call them.
Human medications in all their oval, round, blue and white
pill shaped glory-Check
More water-Check
Luna Bars, Power Bars and Cliff Bars
(In a Post-Disaster, Survivalist World, it seems the one with the most "bars",
lives)-Check
Flashlights, knives, batteries, radio, blankets, duct tape,
baseball bat (there also seems to be hopes of baseball in this dreary new world
of refugees)-Check
Medical kit, oxygen, cash, toilet paper, towels, solar
charger -Check
and finally, a car with a full tank of gas-Check.
We were ready to go, to bug-out, to leave. But go where
exactly? That had never occurred to us. If HERE was where the bad thing was
happening, where was the THERE that would be safe?
So we reentered the street, now clear of any
smokers, and resumed the talks with our equally stymied, neighbors. Just then
the sky turned bright red in the distance. Proof certain that one of the
Facebook omens was indeed true. "Look at that!" A
scream from a child half way down the block...pitch blackness resumed....
"What do you think that was?" I asked my stalwart husband. "I
have no idea", he began.... when fireworks erupted from the North (the bad)
end of town. "Ah", he exhaled in a calm fashion that reminds me why,
in an emergency, he is the one to watch and listen to. "Fireworks. Ok,
that makes sense. It is the weekend before the 4th of July", he concluded
as if it was both expected and completely logical.
In my squirrel brain, I was deducing that only a psycho
crazy person could think that setting off fireworks during what was
increasingly looking like the end of world, would be a good idea.
I wrapped my arms around my body and imagined this new world
with silence yet for the odd firework in the sky becoming the new normal.
"Idiots". I retorted. "Don't they know this is NOT funny?".
"They are having fun", my husband reminded me, his increasingly
annoyed, wife.
With no news via any respectable news outlet that our smart
phones could reach and nothing on the PG&E website except the confirmation
that yes indeed, a massive outage was being experienced by 150,000+ people
(seems Facebook gets one right every once in a while), we said goodbye to our
new friends/neighbors and went back inside our fortress of solitude to wait it
out (whatever the "It" was).
My husband took a shower and crawled into bed, sure and
certain that at some point while he slept, the world would be made right and we
would awake to all the lights being back on if only for the sun being up. I lay down, fully clothed with the
resolute promise to remain awake and alert in case I had to do something.
Although that "something" remained vague in my mind. Just being
awake seemed like the brave and responsible thing to do at the time (or at least that's what my squirrel brain was telling me).
At 12 :32 AM the
power came back on in all her bright, gaudy glory. Every electronic device and
previously humming appliance, sprung to life and I was so happy, I about cried.
It was going to be ok. Whatever had
happened had been fixed, we were safe and life could continue as we knew it
before the "Bad" (still unknown) thing happened.
So what did I learn?
1) It is appalling and inexcusable that we did not know so
many of our neighbors before that night. I am resolved to make the time to walk
the immediate neighborhood and introduce ourselves to each and every one.
2) We rely too heavily on and take for granted, things we
should not. Electricity, the Internet, gas in our car, cash on hand, water,
food, medications. All these things are precious resources that may be easily
available one moment, and gone the next.
3) In an emergency, I panic and want to act immediately,
while my husband is the "Wait and see" kind of guy. He's been on two
tours in Iraq, including
being shot by insurgents in Kuwait.
To him, it's all fixable because he has seen the worst it can be. I need to be
more like him.
4) And finally, I hope to better appreciate all that I have,
the people in my life that are dear to me and the small every day gifts that
are hard won, like being able to turn on a light and see the handsome face of my husband, who loves me and all my squirrel-brained, quirkiness.
The lights might have gone OUT outside, but my inner light
went ON inside. It's going to be ok.
Much Love,
~~~~Dr "I survived the Pre Post-Apocalypse" Brassy
