Power outage

Today did not start well. At 2:45 a.m. all the electronics gave a sharp sleep-shattering *BEEP* and went dead. I checked outside. Looked like the whole street was dark. I called AEP on my emergency TracFone and reported the outage. They estimated 3 hours for repair.

I went back to bed. 

No power at 6:00 a.m. and the house was cooling down.  Thankfully it's not deep winter weather although it was only 35F outside.

I wasn't alarmed.  But I was a bit chilled and sleep deprived.  I need something hot.  Sure, I could run out for a hot cuppa Joe, but the garage door opener wasn't working and the door is too heavy for me to lift.  And it was too early to bang on neighbor's doors looking for help.  I dithered.

After a half-hour I was getting, what?  Frustrated?  Cranky?  Angry that I needed to depend on someone else?  House down to 61F.  Brr.

Yep.  Let's put that negative energy to work.

My bad shoulder and back are not happy.  But at least I managed to get the door propped up enough to get the car out.

Now the world was my oyster.  Or, at least, a caffeine fix.

I was off to McDonalds for a hot coffee.  Originally I was just going to grab a cup to go, but it was light and warm in the restaurant and dark and cold at home, so I enjoyed the coffee there.  The coffee perked me up.  And since it was just before 7:00 a.m. the only customers where several bunches of retirees having good talks.  Real people.  Real conversations.  No cell phones. No computers.  Just real people (all were men) talking to real people.  Geez how I miss that in restaurants anymore. 

I soaked that up for a while, then topped off my coffee and headed home.  I took a different route so I could go looking for the source of the electrical problem.  

Found it.  Good grief!  How fast was that guy going that hit that brand new power pole to sheer it off like that?  *sheesh* (Bits of vehicle in lower right.) The pole is less than 900 feet from my bedroom window, but I never heard even one siren last night.  (Pine trees prevented any flashing lights.) Hope the occupants made it.

Anyway, the power came back on around 10:15 a.m. and the house is now warm, the 'fridge and freezer are humming away and the house phones are working again.

Yay.