I parked and with arms full, headed to the house. There are no street lamps where I live so the solar motion sensor flood lamp that I installed came on as usual. There was no indication that anything was wrong. After fumbling with the key, I got the door open and found the kitchen to be darker than usual. No stove or microwave lights meant that the power was out. That was just great.
All the way home I was craving a cup of coffee. That is my usual after work ritual but last night I REALLY wanted one. I grabbed the flashlight and found a sterno in the basement. I also found the little camping stove that it fits into. I could 'taste' that coffee already. It would be even better than usual because it would have to be French press coffee which is my indoor equivalent to camping coffee.
I got it all set up on top of the stove. It was then I got the first indication that the power had been off for a long time already. No power also means no water. If it is off for only a short period of time, I can still fill a pitcher with what is in the water line. Drip, drip, drip was all I got from the tap. It would take all night to fill a mug and there was not enough left in the pitcher by my coffee maker.
Since there was no water coming through, I knew that the power had been off for quite awhile already. I called the power outage line to find out when it was expected to come back on. The recording said that a crew was dispatched and were still determining the cause. That didn't help my coffee craving.
Well, it was 10:30pm already and the house was cooling off. That problem was solved easily. I got the wood stove lit and the room was warming up nicely. I made another call to the power outage line and the recording was updated. The crews found the root of the problem but still had no idea when the power would be back on. I was beginning to think that there would be no pre-bedtime brew for me.
I dug out an extra blanket and pillow to hunker down in front of the wood stove in the living room. My reading material and flashlight were ready. Just as I got myself comfortable, the power came on. I had to wait thirty minutes for the water lines to pressure up enough to get a trickle but that was fast enough to get a cup of water. It was just after 11pm and that coffee sure tasted good.
It turned out that the big bonfire I saw earlier in the evening was actually the culprit of the power outage. A power pole was on fire. My alarm clock remembered that the lights went out at 8:25pm so the power was out for more than two hours.
This was now the second time that it went out since moving into the new house. I thought that hooking up to the main community water line rather than having a water cistern would be a great idea. I've learned that maybe it wasn't so great.
In the old house, when the power went out, it just meant that my own water pump didn't work. It also meant that when the power came on, so did my pump and I was back in business. Now, I am at the mercy of the community pumping station. Even though the power comes back on, I have to wait until all the pumps are running to capacity again which could take hours depending on how long the power was out.
There was a lesson learned last night. The first item on this week's grocery list is a case of bottled water. It will be tucked away in the basement for the next coffee emergency.
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