Thursday, July 14, 2011

Is there such a thing as too many candles?

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Having the power back on is wonderful and I am completely grateful that it came back on earlier than predicted. But accepting the situation (with a small amount of whine .. and no cheese) made it easier.  My son took off for greener pastures so not only was I in the dark, I was alone.  You don't realize the sounds you don't hear under normal circumstances.  The low buzz of the refrigerator, the television, the air conditioning or furnace depending on the season - it all combines to muffle the sounds around you.  


The sound of tires on gravel, the footsteps of someone walking their dog, the tinkling of the tags on the pup's collar, a cough from a neighbor's house all can be heard when the normal background noise is not there.  And you would think the time would drag not being able to use the normal distractions but for me the time went by very quickly.  I made sure I got everything ready for the next day - my lunch, my meds, the cat's food and meds .. (sigh) I even got my clothes out the night before.  And then there was the Kindle app so I could read comfortably without full light.  


It was warmer than I would have liked but I stayed still for the most part, and read.  Everything was calm, absolutely quiet, and peaceful.  NO, Com Ed, I do not want to go back there.  But instead of wringing my hands and fighting it, I just did what I could to make it the easiest on myself and almost enjoyed it a bit.


Of course today when I had to throw away everything except the cold packs and the ice trays in my freezer, and most everything in my refrigerator too (replacing condiments, oh my!) wasn't fun but again, I knew I was going to have to so I just did it.  Done.  Begin again.


The first night I lit practically every candle I had - I had one in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, one in my bedroom and a ton in the living room.  The second night after hearing I might not have power for days yet - I decided to be more conservative and lit fewer.  I messed with my camera a bit, trying so see how well I could capture the candlelight with no flash and holy cow it looks like I had power!













And here I am being a girl scout and making absolutely sure I got up in the morning.  Never having used my phone(s) as an alarm - I had no confidence in my ability to figure out the snooze feature when half asleep, so I set 2 phones.  Anal retentive, much?  




But it worked, I survived, my son returned and the sounds of the world are muffled once more.  I have to wonder though, is that a good thing?  Are we a bit too removed these days?


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5 Comments:

Anonymous said...

In my opinion it is a good thing. I grew up without running water, and the only heat we had was a wood stove in the living room and one in the kitchen. It was not fun at all. I still do not like to camp out, my idea of roughing it is a hotel that doens't have a heated pool. So when the power goes out here, which it doesn't very often, thank goodness, I will give it a day or so...then I go looking for a hotel somewhere there is heat, air and TV.

Teena in Toronto said...

We had a power outage in 2003 in Toronto. It was such a fun time! We BBQed (we have a gasline from our building) and got to know our neighbours.

mama said...

i do this all the time. except i set THREE alarms.

Cindy said...

I'd have to say we are, and should practice an outage perhaps each year. I notice that the stores fill up when a store is about to happen, the counters run dry so does the milk. When I was growing up we didn't have a lot of the at your finger tips. Good thing or candles.

Dana @ Polish food said...

Candles were okay. It brings positive aura with elegant furniture you have there. I'd say it was wonderful.