Blackout 2003
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At noon, there was still
a breeze.
By 1230pm this room was practically ablaze from those south facing windows.
Freddie and I retreated to the bedroom.
The radio says it's 92 degrees, that half the Con Ed customers have power-
I don't see ANYONE with power from the Empire State building to Union
Square, East or West. The radio says that Staten Island had power back
but lost it because they had too many people draining the power with appliances.
We're all dependent on the generosity of our neighbors, the less energy
they use, the sooner we'll be back online.
No one has called today, I can't call out any more, the phone land line
wont call outside the city, I am conserving the cell phone battery. I
don't want to open the hallway door, it could be hotter out there, usually
is on a normal day. I spend the morning reading and annotating my Frank
Lloyd Wright book, "Truth Against the World". It's getting really lonely.
Trying to think of things I can do without power, I get my guitars and
prepare to clean and restring them. |
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Welcome to my
world.
On the bed, the guitars and the tuning and cleaning stuff, and the
strings, boy am I glad I had them already, oranges and sugar plums and
macadamia nuts and almonds for breakfast and lunch, the radio I used for
the Drive Ins, the land line phone, some water, binoculars, my book and
notes, a "Personal
Cooling" Device- it actually helped.
Again, I was lucky, I had just watered the plants all through the house
and the balcony before the power and water went out. |
Some of my favorite things-,
2 kinds of candles not likely to start fires- one a gift from Brent
and Connie in Missouri, a decorative candle lit by tea lights
in a ceramic dish with a cover, a french
glass "photophore" where the candle is seated in water, so that
when it burns down it self extinguishes, a sharper
image mini fan powered by two AA batteries (it ROCKS!)
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A diminutive
Japanese lantern, powered by AAA batteries, a speakerphone for the
cell phone, 85% cocoa chocolate (melting), a set of tea lights,
battery stocks, a teapot warmer (another less likely to catch fire
candle), treats for the kitten, tapers- my heretofore unused ink
well and glass pen.
Definitely a luxury item and unnecessary
but even the survival
book, said it was good to
defy the odds a little. It's unbelievable
how taxing the BOREDOM is. Waiting and wondering alone.
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In the bathroom I had stashed
the water on the floor, hoping to keep it cooler there
on the tiles. You might recognize the carafe from the fridge. I understand
the Britas have to be kept cold or germs grow in the filters, so I
have emptied them into bottles I already drank.
Freddie keeps busy on a scratching post, but mostly really he slept.
Here's a shot off the balcony where people are still living under
the shade of the trees in the park, two police are directing traffic.
4pm-It's taken me 4 hours to clean and restring and tune the
guitars. I am wondering where I got
those kinds of hours from before to tend to my guitars back when
I was a kid and wouldn't go anywhere
without my guitar and wouldn't think of letting them get dirty and
out of tune. Where did all the time go?
I've cut my nails and was about to sing when the phone rang. It
turns out Vin had tried to call me but the phone didn't
ring then, I got his message though, that was nice. There has been
NO progress today. No more neighborhoods have been lit.
I am a bit hungry, maybe something I threw into the freezer at 9pm
last night might be fit to eat, if not I can eat canned tuna. I am
beginning to wonder if it is time to strap on my kitten and grab our
gear and try to get out of town. Howie had called last night, unable
to get his car out of his garage in town because the garage uses a
lift to move the cars. He had 4 women from his office with him, even
if they could have gotten in my building and braved 15 flights of
stairs in the dark and the heat, I couldn't handle them much better
up here than they could do down there. They ended up getting a car
serve and home by midnight- with power. |
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