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January 16, 1998
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yesterdaywhat's happening?The power went out four times yesterday afternoon - before the storm even started! The lights flickered and the power sort of faded. I shut off the power strip in the office so the computer, the printer, and stuff, wouldn't be powering up and down. None of the outages lasted very long. I went into the bathroom and could hear the Beans of Egypt Maine yelling: "What's going on?" to each other as if one of them were responsible for it. It was pitch dark for blocks around. At 6:00 PM the power went off and didn't flicker back on right away. I had to leave to drive to Cambridge so I shoved a flashlight in my pocket in case I'd need it when I got back, and took off. slow motionI had no money so I thought I'd stop at an ATM to get some cash and then get a sandwich or something on the way. No such luck. Even the ATMs that had power were down. The screens flashed an angle bracket prompt. The traffic lights and streetlights were out. When they started to come back on, it was like they were in slow motion. Everything was in slow motion, as if somebody had taken video of how a Thursday evening was supposed to be and then played it back on the slowest speed. hearing snowIt started to snow a little. More like a mix of snow and freezing rain. The roads weren't too bad so I continued on my mission to Cambridge. It wasn't snowing at all in Cambridge when I got there and had barely started to when I left there two hours later. Little tiny pellets of ice were landing on the dry frozen grass making a light crackly sound. I know sometimes I've heard snow, but this is the first time I ever heard it landing on the ground. tight drivingThe closer I got to home, the worse the roads were. By the time I got off I93 I was driving on ice. The last 10 minutes of the drive were tense. I gripped the steering wheel so hard my hands hurt. Not a good move. You'd think by now I'd know that holding the wheel tighter doesn't give you more control. powerless againThe power had come back on while I was gone, so I reset the clocks and watched the 11:00 news to see about the latest word on the storms (they were forecasting 2 back to back from different directions). After the news, the power went out again. It seemed like this was really it - no power for a good long while. So I went to bed. About 1:30 I woke up. The lights came back on. I reset the clock again and went back to bed. The storm seemed quiet. I could see snow blowing around but I didn't hear any wind. I heard an airplane fly over really low and hoped it wasn't going to try to land at that minuscule airport down the street. I heard neighbors yelling outside. I went back to bed. todayThe kids had a snow day today so Kevin stayed home, hence I had the day off. Unable to dial-in to my ISP because of circuit wide phone trouble, I cleared the snow off the car - no mean feat , it took over an hour because it was heavy wet snow on top of a tightly bonded layer of ice - and headed for Starbucks for a latte. Tom and I were the only customers there for 2 hours. We'd already spent yesterday catching up - T&J were in California for 3 weeks for their daughter's wedding and the holidays and a drive down the coast highway. Tom got back on Wednesday. Julie's down in DC visiting her mother. So Tom and I spent 2 hours yesterday catching up like I said. I heard all about the Henry Miller Library, and all kinds of stuff. We compared notes on the Highway 1 drive in various seasons in various years past. The conversation wound on kinda like the coast highway, tackling world events, spirituality, and the origin of pork chop imagery in brain replacement. Having had such a satisfying and wide ranging conversation yesterday, today's conversation was limited to the storm, the day's news, the new manager of the Starbucks... When I got back from Starbucks, my parking space was inaccessible. Somebody parked illegally and with the snow, well there just wasn't any room so I blocked him in for awhile hoping he'd appear, then noticed one of the neighbors I was blocking in wanted to get out, so I grabbed my camera and drove around looking for photo opportunities. Everything I saw looked like a cliche of winter wonderland kitsch. Sigh. I lost all enthusiasm for photography. I stopped in at TJ Maxx to buy a flannel sheet to make the bed extra warm in case of another power failure. Sean, who used to work at Starbucks, recognized me and we chatted briefly about the new manager and how none of the old crew is left and how the weather forecasters completely blew this storm out of proportion. The second half of the double whammy storm is supposed to start tonight, but the latest forecast I heard predicted it would only be flurries. A far cry from a major storm... Of course that doesn't mean the power won't go out again... | |
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