entrapment of the modern life
a few light-to-medium thunders later last night, main power to my house and the neighborhood was cut around 7:40pm. The power was restored only after 11:40pm. I reached their IVR, when I called the power company at 8:10pm. My wife scoffed the to-the-minute accuracy when the power company projected to restore power by 10:27pm.
I suspected the projected restoration time of10:27pm was just a WAG or SWAG added onto the time when the repair team was dispatched. From our past experience (6+ years in the neighborhood), power usually gets restored a lot quicker than projected.
This time, it took a lot longer, a full four hours, to restore the power. The APC UPS for the blog server stood up two hours after the outage. However, its WAN connection served by Comcast went offline with the main power too. Our modern life was cut short by four hours tonight,
- no TV (?!) No juice to power the TV set, nor signal to start a show or two
- no Phone we converted to VoIP for our land line. Cell phones are available. However, we want to preserve their power for potential emergencies.
- no internet Comcast is out. One’d assume they should have generators with a bigger & better UPS or two.
- no outing Garage door was not automatic without power. It’d be a hassle to get out of the car into the rain to shut the door manually, and to open and lock it again upon returning.
- no ice cream To prevent the meats from thawing, we decide not to open the refrigierator door.
- no book reading the candle light is just too shaky and dim.
- no AC it is a bit humid but not all that hot this time of the year. It would be a lot more miserable if this happens in August.
My son, a 3-year old, was very excited with the candles. It is his first power outage, ever. To him, life couldn’t be better tonight, in that Mom and Dad didn’t rush to the study and “beg” him for a reciting act. He ran around the house, singing and dancing. My wife and I acutally sat there, exchanging a smile or nod once a while.
I certainly was entrapped in all the convenience of a modern life. It took a total blackout tonight for me to realize how much I’ve taken for granted. More importantly, how much I’ve missed in our simple human lives once all the entrapments were removed from this modern life we led.
