We had no electricity for almost two days.  After the radio stations came back online, they called it the “October Surprise.”  That was late last month, but now that I’m not worried it will go out at any moment, I’m writing about it here.

Things get weird when there’s no power. Here are excerpts from my notes and memory.

Hour 1: The humans paced a lot, then settled down. At first I thought it was panic, but then realised they had no screened things to distract. No telly, no computers. Maybe it’s their natural state to just stare at things.

Hour 2: Ken and the Warden started assigning each other various tasks to stay busy, mostly housekeeping. Kept them out of trouble, if that was the intention.

Hour 3: Ken took to reading from paper and writing with a pen. It was like watching an acolyte stretching to learn a lost craft.

Hour 4: Ken made a list of things he couldn’t do without electricity. He wouldn’t show me the list, but I’m sure it included playing Hobowars.

After that, it was mostly dark so I don’t know what happened.

The power came on late the next day. It was as if some divine power had played a bad practical joke, then yelled “Surprise! Just kidding!”

The neat things was how resilient nature was. The smallcats didn’t care. The aquatic life didn’t care. The fruit didn’t care. I know people worry about running our of fuels for their fossils or whatever. But sometimes I think that if the power just went dry, it wouldn’t be the end of the world at all. Just a lot of lists in pencil and chores to keep busy.