It Was a Dark and Stormy Night... Volume 357
As often is the case, I had "many good intentions" of getting a lot of work done, this evening.
Alas — as often seems to be the case around here — a storm blew in, and we've instead been dealing with sporadic electricity... something I really never figured would be an issue in my life, living in "civilization" in the year 2023.
However, it seems to be pretty much par for the course when you live in a place with lots of wind and tall trees... and a somewhat antiquated electric grid infrastructure that remains above ground, rather than safely buried.
Thinking About Many Years Ago
Sitting around, wondering whether we'd be plunged into darkness brought back memories of living with my auntie in her country house when I was a child.
That place quite literally was out in the woods, and the power would go out for any number of reasons. Of course, that was generally less of a problem in Denmark during the summer, because it would stay light until 10:00pm at night.
Nonetheless, there were times of the year when we always had a box of candles and and matches handy in many rooms throughout the house... just in case.
My aunt's house in Denmark, circa 2005
Among other things, I got quite accustomed to writing in my journal by candlelight... yes, I was writing already as a pre-teen. Actually, we got used to doing a lot of things by candlelight, and it used to fascinate me to think of how people "in the olden days" only had candlelight to live their lives by.
Of course, life was different then... and unless you were part of the upper classes, what you "did" in life pretty much revolved around daylight.
And still, it's strange to consider just how little disruption is needed to throw our modern technologically driven lives out of sorts. I suppose I am old enough that it bothers me less than those of our children's generation... I'm not "going to die" if we don't have wifi and a way to charge our phones.
That said, I am also acutely aware that when the power dropped, I did end up reaching for my phone to amuse myself with playing some puzzle games. Didn't last that long, though... I grabbed one of our rechargeable camping lanterns and started reading an actual paper book.
Made me stop for a moment and consider how rarely I read books, anymore. Reading (paper) books was always one of my favorite pastimes, growing up... and well into my 30's. Now it seems I most read blogs on the Internet.
The only constant there is the reading, itself.
Well... the lights are flickering again, so I think I will end this here, and just head off to bed... and hope for a steadier access to "life's modern conveniences" tomorrow.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the remainder of your week!
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Created at 2023-01-18 00:30 PST
0723/1978
Lovely house with thatched roof! Must be very warm in winter.
Reading a book is what I meant to do for ages! But the internet took all my free time; I need to switch off the electricity and use some candle light!
Thank you! It has always been one of my favorite places, growing up.
Barely a week since I wrote this post, and the electricity was out this evening. We read, and I even managed to post a Hive post from my phone.
It is easy to forget just how fragile our modern way of life is ... it doesn't take much to disrupt it, as you said. A lovely reflection on times gone by. 🌳
It doesn't take much at all. We've gotten fairly used to it... it was just a week since I wrote this post, and we were once again in the dark, this evening.
I have a few candles, but mostly I have many oil lamps and boxes of matches near them. The number of times the lights go out around here hasn't increased much in recent years, but it used to go out a lot in the first decade we lived here.
There's an electric clock in the barn and when the power went out and on again it would run backwards. That's how we knew we'd lost power when we weren't in the house.
I only read books as I have a hard time with text on a screen. Photos are ok, so most of the blogs I read have lots of photos.
That's so funny about the clock in the barn going backwards!
Oil lamps are a good idea; we have a few of those. We also have cats, though... so they have to be locked away so they don't get knocked over and spilled, when not in use.
That backwards-running clock is interesting... ours just "blink" at us till we can't ignore them any longer.
I've always had cats, but fortunately, mine were never up on things so I never had a problem.
The problem with the clock is to get it to run forwards afterwards. Sometimes it took several unpluggings to make it happen...
During the child-raising years I didn't read as many books, but now I'm back to reading lots of books again. Where I live, the power goes out frequently. I automatically reach for light switches, even with the flashlight in my hand. Habit!!
Our outages seem to have gotten worse, rather than better, as time goes by. I guess we just have a very old and decaying infrastructure.