Power Outage

Californians (Namely Me) Suffer

No PlayStation, no hot water, no TV, no internet, no stereo, no refrigerator, no stove, no life. Losing power makes me realize that were time travel a possibility, its not one I'd soon explore. Forget cholera- I'd die of outright boredom.

As it turns out, California is ill-equipped for storms. In the other 355 days of near perfect weather, no one in California is saying to themselves, "hey, better stock up on batteries and canned food just in case!" Californians fail to realize and prepare for the possibility of foul weather. If you can even call it that. A couple days of rain and wind, and there are landslides, power outages, car wrecks, and rioting. Ok, not rioting. Only rioting in the form of bitching about bad weather.

We lost power with a bang last night. It was about 11.30, so after grabbing my camping headlamp and glancing out the window a couple of times to confirm that it was in fact the entire block that went out, I finished my book chapter and went to sleep. Back in New England, we lost power quite a bit, so it's nothing I hadn't been through before.

Waking up this morning, however, I was irritated to find out that my cell phone hadn't charged, confirming the fact that the power was still out. One hell of a quick cold shower later, I stumbled to the corner for Starbucks and the paper, in lieu of my usual homemade coffee and internet.

After completing the crossword (what else is the newspaper good for?) and watching my cat slump over from exhaustion (no doubt wondering the reason for all the extra attention), I realized I was insanely bored. With a grimace, I decided to clean the house. Usually to tackle these sorts of chores, I don underwear, sunglasses, and button down -- never one to miss an opportunity for a Risky Business homage-- but without music, what was the point?

"Life without electricity sucks," I said to myself in a whinier voice than I intended.

I cleaned for a bit, but without my usual fervor. Plus, I couldn't clean anything that required hot water. Really all I did was empty my suitcase that had been sitting on the bedroom floor for two weeks. I tried to wake the cat up with his favorite feather toy, but to no avail. I leafed through a people magazine. Boy, I'd expect it from Lohan, but not Mischa Barton. She seemed to have her head on straight, unlike the rest of those maniacs. And what the hell is Jamie Spears going to do with a baby?! That boyfriend of hers is going to bolt like a bat out of---

And there it was. The glorious beep of the microwave, the mellifluous hum of the refrigerator, the small red light of the Playstation beaming like a beacon from heaven above. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, checked my email, and felt normal again.