Relatively Powerless

You can get a lot done without electricity, especially if you're me.

Normally when the power goes out I get upset, feel lost, and sooner or later get bored and unhappy. If it happens during the night I can amuse myself for a short time finding and lighting candles, lanterns, or flashlights and setting them up only to discover that no matter how well they're placed, they won't help me watch TV or play with my computer.

This time, however, it was different. Not only had Southern California Edison warned me that I'd be without power, but they'd given me an estimated time it would come back on. That's extraordinarily helpful.

It went out about fifteen minutes after they'd said it would and, for a moment, I thought maybe the scheduled outage was postponed again. But, true to their word, after I'd unplugged everything I cared about that wasn't a major appliance, my little clock radio turned off. Unplugging all my personal electronics, by the way, isn't as difficult here as it would be in any other place I've lived since I only have about three outlets that I use (but, through the miracle of extension cords and multiple outlet adapters, closer to ten things plugged in).

For the record, I wish this place had more outlets. Many more. And, that the few there are were more conveniently located. There are seven, total, inside my home but two of those (for some reason) are in the bathroom where I only have one thing to plug in. The living part of the house has one on the kitchen counter and another behind the refrigerator, rendering it useless.

The “cabin” part of the house has one on the south facing wall, the one with the two windows and it's supplying all my computer stuff and, on occasion, a space heater. The western wall has one behind my beautiful, but massive, armoire that is used for for both satellite dishes and my TV and another that's behind a large bookshelf and is effectively useless. At the foot of the bed there's one I use for my clock radio, and that's it.

So, in short, the one I can get to is overloaded and the rest are pretty much useless.

But that's not the point.

After discovering that the camp stove I bought when I moved here and wasn't sure if I'd have any electricity at all actually isn't a camp stove and doesn't work. So, instead of coffee, I quickly pulled an emergency energy drink from the refrigerator and set it outside in the sun to warm up to “downright chilly.” I considered building a fire to make the coffee, but didn't want to risk burning the handle of my Bialetti coffee maker, without which I'd sob uncontrollably.

Driving into town to see about getting the weatherstripping on the Jeep fixed was a bust with the auto glass place seemingly out of business and its nearby body repair place temporarily missing the one guy who could answer my question. Maybe, when I drive to another, larger town, I can find an open and working auto glass business and get it done there.

After stopping at another store or two with Minardi patiently waiting in the Jeep, I stopped off at my realtor's office to give her my tardy thanks for setting me up in the place. She, her husband, and I chatted because here in the desert no one ever is too busy to talk, and I was pleased to see that someone else shared my belief that the obsession with UFOs in Landers can be chalked up to people not realizing that the adjacent Marine base does quite a bit of artillery practice.

She had electricity at her office, but my next stop, much closer to home, at my water provider didn't. I'd gone there to see if they could tell me where my water box / meter / shut off was, and next week they'll give me a call or send someone out to point it out.

I hoped to get some coffee, stopped at a gas station who was also without power, and got a large cup of cold coffee for a buck.

With a few hours to kill before I could expect the power to come back on, I sat outside and sharpened a few knives, moved some of the crap outside around, and took care of some chores. About three o'clock, when the power was scheduled to come back on, I sighed and moved the stuff near the armoire so I could pull it out and retrieve the Internet satellite power cord that had fallen behind it when I carelessly unplugged it earlier in the day. When I re-arranged everything to put it back and put some things away, I was delighted to see that I'd managed to acquire a few square feet of empty floor space.

Now, normally, I don't think I'd even notice getting a couple square feet extra room, but in a home this small, it's tremendous. Yes, if I did a better job (read: any at all) of putting things away, I could conceivably reclaim two to three times that amount, but I was amazed at how much progress I could make with such little effort.

I'll get used to it quickly, but just uncovering a foot or two of floor space makes a huge difference when your place has so few to begin with.

A few minutes after the scheduled time, the power came back on and my cheery, relatively spacious, little home was filled with beeping clocks on all the appliances demanding attention.

Then, I got everything plugged back in, got it all working again, and here I am.