considered: life without/with power

Living without power for four days in 2007 was a little like living with power in 1968.

Without power in 2007, you had no TV. With power in 1968, there wasn't much on TV, and even when there was, we spent all of our time outside during the day "playing".

Without power in 2007, you had no computer or internet access. Ditto for 1968.

Without power in 2007, you had no air conditioning, and slept with windows open listening to the crickets, tree frogs and amorous cats. Ditto for 1968.

Without power in 2007, we listened to baseball on the radio. Ditto for 1968.

Without power in 2007, we cooked on the grill constantly. Ditto for 1968.

Without power in 2007, after dinner we read books, talked, and played piano. Ditto for 1968.

Without power in 2007, we washed dishes by hand. Ditto for 1968.

I'll stop there. There were a few other parallels, but you get the idea.

Were it not for the absence of refrigeration (which sucked) or hot water (which sucked more), and the constant brain-stem poking whine of the sump pump battery, I could have lived with it for a while.

I actually felt a little sad when the power beeped on yesterday afternoon; I turned off the baseball game my son and I had been listening to on the radio, and as I closed the windows and turned on the dishwasher the TV turned on and I lost my kids to some cartoon. I sense future power outages in my future.