And then it grew dark... and almost quiet

You know, I am committed to writing a daily blog post. Not exactly "daily" since I skip Sundays but close enough. Well, here it is almost 9:30 PM on Monday and there is no post. Not even a hint of one in my mind.

I blame the weather and the power company. About 5 PM on Monday, we had a fierce thunderstorm pass through and that knocked the power out for close to an hour. That taught me that one of my UPS units is on its last legs... or volts, or watts, or something. It went into total shutdown. It is not supposed to do that. It is the one that two computers, the cable modem, the router, and the Vonage telephone adapter depend on. So, no phone, no computer, no nada. I have a cell phone so we weren't completely out of touch with the world but still...

Another thing that stops working when the power goes out is the oven. The oven held, at the time the power disappeared, our dinner. Now, the oven is gas but the regulation of the heat requires the electricity which was no longer being faithfully provided by our local power company. Meanwhile, the two other UPS units in the house (one for Frances' computer and one for the TV and Cable DVR) were still providing backup power (as they are supposed to do) and going "beep beep beep" every minute to let us know that they were doing so. Annoying the heck out of me.

The important one was not going "beep beep beep", it was just one continuous irritating wail of an extended into infinity "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" that sets your teeth on edge and instigates Migraines. Until I turned it off completely after trying several times. I had to try several times because the on/off button wasn't working properly. It still isn't.

So now I have to replace the recalcitrant UPS tomorrow (Tuesday) or find a replacement battery. I suspect the replacement battery will cost as much as a new UPS so it's likely that I will have a new UPS by sometime around noon or so.

Things like this drive home the point that we are slaves to modern life. Lose power for even 20 minutes and we move past annoyed into light panic. An hour of no power is much worse. You begin to wonder just how long it will last. You worry. You sweat. Heavily. Without power, there is no air conditioning. And no air conditioning down here means great discomfort. And perspiration.

I have a back up generator but I have not checked it for a year now. It may not work. And, even if it does, it cannot provide enough juice to run the AC. It provides only enough power to allow us to use the oven, run the ceiling fans and the fridge, and power the radio.

I am reminded that I am not yet prepared for hurricane season.