Monday, April 14, 2014

The Power’s Out…What’ll We Do? By Linda S. Glaz



We had a huge wind plow through Southeastern Michigan last night stronger than a bulldozer and about as dangerous. Not only were trees older than Methuselah uprooted, power poles downed, and lawns covered with an inch of thick hail, but the power went out.
What? No power?
What will we do?
My Kindle had registered only 15% the night before, and I hadn’t recharged. However, I had found my old one (when I cleaned my office, something that had been desperately needed) two days earlier and had charged the poor thing. It hadn’t seen juice in almost a year.
So my evening consisted of holding a flashlight over the dinosaur Kindle, then giving up and allowing it to ‘tell me’ the story in that wacko computerized voice that sounds like a kid talking into a fan (yes, this IS something we all did as kids).
Didn’t sleep well at all: worried about the flooding in the yard, the downed trees and branches, and the possibility of the crawl space filling up once again. We have workers waterproofing our home as I write this. And many of the older homes in our area have very limited space beneath them. In our case, 8-12 inches only.
Then my mind kicked in (as always, there’s a story in each situation). If they drained the water, what might they find? Our home is over 140 years old. Coins? Hunks of wood? Old pieces of insulation? Maybe a live groundhog. Our yard is a wild animal refuge. Not by choice.
Can’t you picture it? A guy is in a white suit (why on earth do they choose white when going under an old home like ours?) crawls under and comes out screaming. You can’t make out the words, only that he’s whiter than some of the hail had been, and his eyes are the size of last night’s salad plates.
He starts blubbering, rambling, crying. I mean, this guy’s scared!
Eventually, he convinces his boss to crawl under. Boss man comes out two minutes later with a bone. A human bone. Eventually, an entire skeleton.
Yeah, I know. I find a suspense novel in every single thing that happens.
How about you? What do you do when the power goes out? Do you think up a new novel?

6 comments:

Veronica Leigh said...

My mind isn't on creating new stories when the power is out. Usually we're scrambling about to make sure that food isn't spoiling or we're lighting candles. When that's all taken care of, I sit down and marvel at how when my grandparents were young, they didn't have electricity, central air or refrigeration. Those were considered luxuries. They lived during the Great Depression and WWII. Then I become thankful that our power outage is only temporary and as soon as the lights blink on, I turn on the TV. :~)

Linda Glaz said...

We do take all of our luxuries for granted. I remember my mom telling me how she and my dad lived in my grandparents old chicken coop when they were first married. A bedroom and kitchen/living room as they built their new home next door. She said it was lovely and adorable and she actually missed it when they moved out.

Terry Burns said...

I understand when Veronica says she scrambles when the power is out. We live in an all electric home and when it is out there is nothing in this place that makes heat. We scramble too. But when I read Linda's comment above I flashed back on a story when my grandmother was being shown through one of my cousin's new homes. The kitchen had everything including dishwasher, trash compactor, blender, convection stove, you name it. After she showed mammaw around she asked her what the most important item in the kitchen was. She didn't hesitate before she said, "indoor plumbing."

Linda Glaz said...

Oh yeah, that's a priority.

Terry Burns said...

It didn't even occur to my cousin that it was one of the items . . . she'd never had to carry water to cook with.

Linda Glaz said...

So funny! I guess what we see as needs today were luxuries just a few decades ago. I had a friend, in the city, in high school, '68 that still had outside toilets. Oohh, not sure I could have done that. I slept over and remember wandering around her house at night looking for the bathroom. Maybe seeing a skeletal hand floating in there...oh yeah, now you're talkin'.