On Tuesday evening there was a loud pop and a few sparks at the end of our driveway. At the same time, our power went out in the house. It looks like the temperamental transformer blew, and it left five homes, including ours, in the dark.
Although this was very inconvenient, we didn’t have to panic. We had a cell phone, which we used to call the power company, plenty of bottled water in case we got thirsty (without power, we lose function of the well pump), additional water to flush toilets, lots of snacks and easy to eat food if we got hungry, gas in the car if we needed to leave, plenty of clean clothes if we needed them, baby wipes if we needed to clean up without water, books, games and battery powered light sources to see them by, and a gas-powered generator that we could utilize if the power stayed out for more than a few hours. I also knew that I could pack up my laptop and work at the library if the power was still out the next day.
In short, we had everything we needed to stay comfortable until the power can be restored. We were in no rush to start the generator because heat wasn’t an issue and the food would survive the the fridge and freezer for a number of hours. So, my husband and I sent the kids to bed and did a little reading before we turned in ourselves, lulled by the white noise of our neighbor’s generator.
Around 4 am the power came back on, and life returned to normal. Not once did we view this as a crisis, although I found out later that one family on the other side of town who had also lose power due to the thunderstorm that was also happening, packed the kids up and checked into a hotel because they did panic.
Being prepared saved us a lot of stress, not to mention possibly a couple of hundred dollars for a hotel room.
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