November 18, 2008

The No-Power Hours

If you're moving to Costa Rica, bring flashlights. Not just one but, like, 10 of 'em. One for each room, bathrooms too. Check the batteries on a regular basis. And get a few candles and, maybe, a hurricane lamp. Tape a full box of matches to the wall behind your toaster, so you can find them easily.
The power goes out a lot here. This morning, at exactly 7:30, everything shut off. Poof. I sat back and counted to 5, then to 10, expecting the power to click back on the way it usually does. Nothing. After about 5 minutes, I walked outside to see if it was just me or were the neighbor's lights out too. I found my neighbor's son standing on the sidewalk and he told me that they had been told that the power would be out today from 7:30 to 4:30. Great. Other than no computer and no tv, I figured we'd be fine. I'd just keep the fridge closed and by the time we got back from India's ninjitsu class, the power would be back on and I could make dinner and camp out in front of the tv for the evening. Silly me.
When we got back to the house at 7pm, the whole neighborhood was still pitch dark. The cab driver was nice enough to put his lights on me while I unlocked the door, but I dropped the keys just as I walked in and fumbled for a few minutes to find them. We have no working flashlights anymore. I realized this the other night when I went looking for one to take with me to the poop park. Tom swears he saw a snake there a few nights back. Our dogs are useless as protectors, so I'd want to be the first to see a snake if there is one. I realized that not only did we have no functioning flashlights, but we only had one candle. I remembered thinking we'd be screwed if the lights went out for any length of time, so I ordered 4 big Mag Lites on Amazon and told myself that I'd need to get a couple more candles until they got here - just in case. I found our lone candle easily enough tonight, but it took me a while to remember where I'd seen matches. When I located the box, there was only one left. I lit the candle and placed it on the coffee table. It blew out a second later. Obviously, I was not a Girl Scout. India managed to find her battery-less flashlight and I went and walked the dogs in our inky black park, repeatedly squeezing a blue plastic pig with LED lights for nostrils. I took a moment to scare the crap out of the sleeping security guard by slapping my hands on the glass of the guard house and shrieking. A few minutes later, as I walked back into my house, I got a little scare of my own. The power came back and every light in my house went on. Seems the neighbor kid, who I'm not crazy about anyway, spent her two hour-long visit earlier in the day going around flipping every light switch in the house. Every single light! It must have taken me ten minutes to turn 'em all off again! In the end I was just grateful the power was back on and I wouldn't have to empty out my freezer tomorrow as one neighbor had warned I might have to do when she told me that this had happened before and the power stayed off for two days. Never a dull moment here and I manage to find ways to be grateful simply because things don't go as badly as they could have.
Today's lessons: Buy flashlights. Keep neighbor kid out of my house.