15 Hours Without Electricity Because– Well, We Don’t Know Why

/ Ally Bean

Think of this as a rambling “Dear Diary” post…

THE LONG WHINY PART

{ feel free to skip if muttering and complaining bother you }

Around 1:00 a.m. Saturday morning I was awakened from my slumber by the loud *click-clack-thunk-bunk* sounds of our machines, powered by electricity, turning themselves off.

What kind of forking shirt is this, I asked myself, emulating Eleanor Shellstrop from The Good Place as I used her creative vocabulary to express myself.

As one does.

Inside our house it was dark except for where the moon beamed in some light on the back of the house.  The front of the house, along with all of our neighbors’ houses, was dark.

Of course, having not recently fallen off the suburban homeowner turnip truck, I didn’t do a thing, except to look out a few windows, confirm that the whole neighborhood was without power, and then go back to sleep.

Next morning there was still no electricity anywhere on our street, so being the trooper that I am I got dressed and drove elsewhere to find us hot coffee.

[And what a sad bedraggled bunch of folks were we, the coffee fetchers, at the local Kroger Star$ kiosk.  Barely alert, yet focused on our mission to get the sustaining elixir of life for ourselves and our loved ones.]

THE DETAILED WHAT WE DID UNTIL WE GOT ELECTRICITY AGAIN PART 

{ probably want to skim over for context regarding the photos to come }

By 9:00 a.m. we still had no electricity, no idea why we didn’t have electricity, and our cell phones were almost without juice, so we did the only thing we could think of and went out to breakfast, at what turned out to be the world’s worst Bob Evans.

Humph.

Then, needing to charge our phones, we drove to the other side of somewhere to go to a garden nursery;  we like this garden nursery, but buying mums, which we did, was the secondary reason for our visit.  We required a long car ride to help our phones get going again.

Modern life, ain’t it grand?

Then, having called home to find that our answering machine wasn’t picking up, meaning no electricity, we decided to stop at a little new-to-us township park to wander around its flat paths and see what was there.

Short answer: kids and chairs.

Then, it being the middle of the afternoon on a day that wasn’t working out like I’d hoped, we went to the bar of a local restaurant that is known for chicken.  There we had delicious chicken sandwiches, watched some football, and drank beer.

Because… Saturday… in the fall… and bored.

THE 8 PRETTY PHOTOGRAPHS PART

{ make sure to look at these ‘cuz it was a clear day meant for snapping pics }

Pond at garden nursery.

• • •

Geese on pond at garden nursery.

• • •

Ducks avoiding geese on pond at garden nursery.

• • •

Island in middle of pond at township park.

• • •

Human beings gathered around play area beside pond at township park.

• • •

Old stately home, available to rent for private events, beside pond at township park.

• • •

Chairs waiting for guests beside old stately home, available to rent for private events, beside pond at township park.

• • •

Farm with corn in the field across from pond at township park.

• • • • •

66 thoughts on “15 Hours Without Electricity Because– Well, We Don’t Know Why”

  2. When we first moved here, our electricity constantly went out. It was squirrels. Last Sunday night our electricity went out because of a big tree limb coming down on a power line. Flash lights have become a necessity. I’m glad the weather cooperated. Love the pictures!

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    • Beth, I didn’t know that squirrels could cause this kind of trouble. Could have been them, we have plenty of them around here. All I know is there was no reason that we could see for the power outage– and because of the outage our Saturday plans around the house were shot to heck. *sigh*

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  3. At least when my street was without power a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of Irma, we knew why. Maybe you should get a generator. Then, when it happens again you could open a pop-up coffee and cell phone charging stand and get to know all your neighbors very well.

    Liked by 2 people

    • bobcabkings, I like how you think! During this outage we talked [again] about getting a generator, but I hadn’t thought it through to the point where I made friends with the neighbors. Don’t know if that’s a plus or minus on the generator purchase issue. 🤔

      Liked by 2 people

  4. (Your ducks look an awful lot like sleepy geese.)

    I hate, hate, hate losing electricity. Immediately, I begin to fret about all the food in the fridge and freezers. And there is NO WAY I would have been able to blithely leave the house for the day. Sigh. You are my Hero.

    Love the part about the Coffee Seekers. Boy, do I get THAT.

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    • nance, did I mislabel some birds AGAIN? I have a history of that. Well, whatever kind of water fowl they are, they didn’t like the other ones on the pond.

      I was rather blithe about the whole thing, now that you mention it. Sometimes I can just go with the flow– and in this instance I was able to do that. Well, once I scored some coffee I was able to do that.

      Liked by 1 person

    • nancy, we had no Plan B, per se. If the weather had been awful the outage would have made sense because there would have been a reason. But the day was glorious, while the repair was slow. ☹️

      Liked by 1 person

      • Once we lost power because of a crow messing around the lines. We saw the dead crow at the base of the pole and called to report the outage and the reason for the outage. The power company wasn’t convinced until they came out and so no other reason for the outage ~ the dead crow was “living” proof.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. An alien invasion? Picked your neighborhood right up and dumped you down in what only appears to be the same place then by some weird teleportation beam placed all of you coffee-seeking, wandering, grumpy/frustrated, humans right back into the hood…which now really isn’t the same hood at all.
    And, you have no idea do you, who is really responding to this post… (insert creepy laugh from large headed short green ‘visitor’ with big black eyes)

    Liked by 3 people

    • Donna, it wasn’t a total loss of a day, to be sure. It just wasn’t the productive day that we’d planned to have. Going with the flow, that’s what I did– only grumbling a little bit. And the delicious chicken sandwich did a lot to make me happier about things.

      Liked by 1 person

  8. Our resident squirrel, Fat Albert, chewed our Christmas lights that we displayed prettily on the deck. In Texas we had mice chew through the wiring in our car – not once but twice. The insurance company had a good laugh – but they paid.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Patricia, I’ve learned lots about squirrels today. I don’t know for sure why the electricity stopped, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that a distant relative of Fat Albert was to blame. Mice damaging your car? That’s a new one.

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  9. And calling the electric company gave you no clue either? That’s the first thing I do when we have mysterious outages (although, I think we are on a separate grid since we live so close to the airport. We must run on their generators since other parts of the city lose power a lot more than we do.) What great pictures you got. Maybe you weren’t supposed to have a productive day. Maybe you were supposed to just be together and chat.

    Liked by 3 people

    • Janet, we didn’t try to reach Duke Energy having learned long ago IF you get through they’ll tell you nothing specific, just vague weasel words. Why let them have the opportunity to express fake concern?

      I was thinking the same thing about the day and the photos. The day was a good one in its own way, so maybe it was meant to be.

      Liked by 1 person

      • We usually get recorded messages but it generally will tell us where the outage is and approximately how long we should be without service. I call because I want to make sure someone knows about it. What if no one looked at the control panel at Duke Energy to know that a grid was gone? Of course, here we are dealing with PG&E and if you know about the big explosion in San Bruno a few years ago, that was our little town. It wouldn’t surprise me if no one at PGE was watching the grids. 😦

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        • Interesting that you get a recorded message. The last time I called, I waited forever, then was made to feel I was bothering them by telling them something they already knew. Grids fail, for whatever reason. I didn’t know that you were in San Bruno for that explosion. How scary.

          Liked by 1 person

          • It was and we could see the flames from our house which is almost the other end of the city. At first, living so near the airport, we thought a plane had crashed. It was on a street that we had driven down a lot since my daughter had a friend who lived in that area. Fortunately the friend’s house just had some heat damage to the paint and no damage to family.

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    • Allie P, not a bad idea to have solar panels. I know one husband who’d love to have them. Maybe down the road, if by chance this becomes a regular thing. Which it could, I suppose. It’s not like the squirrel population is dwindling around here.

      Liked by 1 person

  11. well, do you have power now? When did it come back on? Did you ever find out what caused it? Did the geese and ducks ever become friends? Oh, the questions!

    Oh, and also, you should purchase a Halo (http://www.qvc.com/HALO-Square-5200-mAh-Portable-Cell-Phone-and-Tablet-Charger.product.E229879.html?sc=NAVLIST) or similar device. Holds a lovely charge to recharge your devices should your power go out. Also a Stanley Fat Max power source thingy (http://www.stanleytools.com/en-us/products/automotive-tools/other-tools/power-station/700-instant–1400-peak-battery-amp-professional-power-station-with-500-watt-inverter-and-digital-gauge/pprh7ds). I’ve used mine when I was sans power many times. I’ve also put air in my car tires. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Tara, we have power. Duke Energy got it back on about 4:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon. We have no idea why it happened. I don’t know if the geese and the ducks became friends, but while I was watching them they didn’t seem like they were living in harmony.

      Thanks for the suggestions. I’ll check them out immediately. Ironically, we have a portable external battery charger from AEP, a different utility company than the one here, but said charger didn’t work either. 🙄

      Liked by 1 person

    • John, I don’t know much about charger thingies so thank you very much for suggesting one. I agree that we need to have a couple around here. In fact, I can think of no better way to make sure that this electric outage never happens again, than for me to buy things that would help during one. If I’m prepared, it won’t happen. 😉

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  14. You are a-dorable and I love the “House that Jack Built” quality to your captions.

    My husband explained the robust nature of the power grid in our new town. Since, at one time, it was a heavy-duty mining region, power was essential and the grid was “over-built.” We have fewer outages and brown-outs than we did in heavily populated Southern Ontario. The utility is diligent to alert of planned outages.

    That said, the unplanned ones can last for days. So far I haven’t experienced it. And since we don’t have a bar that serves decent chicken sandwiches, I hope we never do!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Maggie, I feel that it’s possible that our grid is the opposite of yours. It might have been “under-built” because no one anticipated that this formerly undesirable little town would refashion itself into somewhere snazzy. I mean, we never thought we’d see it develop like it has, and we bought here. I suspect that the utility company may not have kept up with this community’s growth.

      Glad you liked the captions. I entertain myself in the silliest ways.

      Liked by 2 people

  15. Sometimes a day that doesn’t go as planned turns out to be a pretty nice day. I think the two of you made lemonade out of what could have been a lemon-sucky day. Btw, having solar panels may not have helped unless you also have battery back-up. Most solar systems are designed shut off during an outage for safety reasons.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Janis, it wasn’t a horrible day, just not the one I’d planned. And it was weird to not have power when there was no discernible reason for it to be off, but we made our own fun. I didn’t know that about solar panels. They sound so cool in theory, but I rarely see them around here which makes me think they’re not meant for our climate.

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  16. Still no idea why no power? That always makes me nervous because you never know when it will come back. Our outages are usually wind related. (lots of branches and trees come down) It sounds like you made the best of the situation, and took some lovely photos as well. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Margaret, I figure that the next newsletter from the HOA will explain what happened. Our power outages are usually when there’s an ice storm and the lines + dead tree limbs come down. This one was an oddity.

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  18. Life without coffee in the morning because of electrickery outage? No way Jose, which is why we have gas for the top part of the stove … and a small generator for things like tv and cell phones and computer if the electrickery goes off which it does here in South Africa, occasionally. But just goes to show how getting OUT of the house has its advantages .. lovely photos Ally Bean. Maybe invest in a small stand alone gas thingamy on which you can boil a pot of water or heat some food ..?

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    • Susan, we had the option of having a gas cooktop when we had the house built, but it cost a lot more than the electric one so we didn’t spring for it. Thinking back, knowing what I know now, it might have been a good idea, but OH WELL, WHATEVER.

      I like your idea of getting something that would allow us to at least boil some water. I would have been perfectly fine with instant coffee. I’m hoping that this unexplained outage is a once off– and not the beginning of a trend.

      Liked by 1 person

  19. For something that must have been so frustrating and contrary to your agenda, you brought a smile to my face with your retelling of it. Beautiful pics! It could have been so much worse.

    Liked by 1 person

    • cherylbalcom, you’re so right. This outage could’ve happened when the weather was frigid and our car was broken, so we’d have ended up stuck and cold inside our house. But the day was gorgeous and we had wheels, so we wandered around doing nothing much… although those chicken sandwiches were delicious… need to get back to that place…

      Liked by 1 person

  20. The day you had might have been unplanned, but it seems you made the best out of a troublesome situation. No coffee? Unacceptable. It’s even worse than no phone, in my opinion.

    Just this past weekend, Husband and I were considering the purchase of a generator. I think that the power grids have been chronically underserviced for the growing demand on it, combined with the increasing risk of power outages caused by climate change … it’s not a healthy recipe.
    Losing power for an extended period of time in the dead of a brutally cold Canadian winter doesn’t sound appealing.

    Liked by 2 people

    • Joanne, I agree that no coffee worried me more than no cell phone. I like being alert more than connecting I guess.

      Many years ago we lost our electricity on the day before Christmas Eve Day. It was about 20ºF outside and the outage, which was caused by a huge snow and ice storm, just shut everything down for 28 hours. It was a mess because of the snow/ice, and because by the time the electricity was back on all our food was spoiled AND it was Christmas Eve.

      At that time we thought about getting a generator, but never followed through with the idea. If you get one, I’d love to know what you choose and why. I think you’re right about climate change, and our need to have a back-up source of power.

      Liked by 1 person

      • I wonder if it was the same year we had a massive ice storm just before Christmas and had no power for 3 days.
        At first I was really freaked out by it, but surprisingly, you figure it out.
        We’re lucky because we have a gas fireplace, and a gas stove. I was able to make hot food and we huddled around the fireplace bundled up in warm clothes.
        When the power finally came back on, it actually felt uncomfortably warm in the house. I had got used to the much colder temperature which had stabilized in the low 50s.

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  21. My mother informed me that we live on the good side of the grid, the one with the fort and the schools, so we rarely have an outage. This makes me happy, I admit. Not quite so much for me personally, but for being mom of Moo, who thinks power outages are terrifying, and who can be truly annoying in her struggle to cope with darkness. I’da thought she’d outgrow it by now, but no.

    The power goes out much more often on the other side of the street. Poor those people.

    It is a bit odd that you don’t know why. Perhaps it was so you could have a different sort of day and snap those pics 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • joey, we’re nowhere near schools or forts [or hospitals], so I think our power grid is a low priority for Duke Energy. Poor kid, scared of the dark. Moo is a delightful character… who would’ve flipped out with this power outage.

      I’m figuring that our HOA newsletter will explain what this was all about. If the weather had been awful I wouldn’t think a second thing about this outage, but– you can see the photos, it was a gorgeous clear day.

      [BTW, your comment went straight into my spam folder. I don’t know why but that’s where I found it. Not sure what it means, but there you have it.]

      Liked by 1 person

    • Betsy, it was an odd way to spend a Saturday, just making up things to do because we had nowhere to go back to. Fun, but far from productive. The sign may have said “No” but the ducks and geese looked mighty well-fed to me. 🙄

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  23. Huh, everyone wants to throw the squirrels ‘under the bus,’ but I don’t think that’s fair, without proof. Our power went out a few weeks ago, and soon after we heard sirens. Sure enough, a car had hit a power line pole. That’s why I think undergrounding makes sense! When we bought our place here 4 years ago, we were relieved to see the owner had invested in a beautiful big generator. With winter snowstorms, spring thunderstorms, and cars hitting poles, it was a great investment!

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    • Thanks for your support! The day was an odd one considering how pretty it was outside and how desolate it was inside our house. Like you said, at least some good came out of it in the form of photos and good eats. So don’t complain, right?

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    • Elen, it was a good thing to spend that day away from the house. The weather was gorgeous, but it was odd. No storms, no accidents, no anything that would indicate why the electricity went out.

      Liked by 1 person

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