I first heard about Earth Hour a few weeks earlier, in some passing internet reference, probably one of the science or astronomy blogs or twitter feeds I look at. The idea was to spend an hour with the lights off, to show what it would be like without electrical lighting.
However, it didn't really sink in until the day of (Saturday), when it was discussed on a number of Twitter feeds and blogs. In the morning, I thought it would be a good idea to try, but then I completely spaced it until looking at Twitter at 07:50 pm...
Fortunately, I was fairly well prepared to "go dark" on short notice. My house has a number of candles always set up, and I am fortunate to have a fireplace, with a decent stock of kindling and paper. In addition, I have a nice wooden lantern for SCA camping, which was perfect for carrying around the house with me,since not every room had a candle ready (most notably the bathroom).
So even though I only had 10 minutes, I got every light I could in my house out before 8 PM, local time - the only light still on was the kitchen sink light, which has a broken pull switch. (I even tried to take the cover off and loosen the bulbs, but I couldn't figure out how to get to it, and I wanted to make sure I signed off my computer by 8 as well.)
With the efforts on the kitchen light and then shutting down my computer, I wasn't actually "dark" until 8:02 or so, but I figured that was good enough. Looking outside, I could see the snow in the light of the streetlights - which was kind of a bummer, since I had thought I heard the city might try going dark as well, but then with the snowstorm, they might have changed their minds.
I sat down to start a fire, and quickly realized that the small stash of medium-sized logs I had made at the start of the winter must have been used up by my former roommates while I was away. while this wasn't actually that surprising, I was kind of bummed because I had left a couple of log sections sitting outside, now well coated with snow... oh well.
Once I got the fire going, I sat down to read some D&D materials, to prep for a game with my son and his friends the next day. Being well prepared will be important since with the snow, they won't be able to go out and get their ya-yas out by playing boffers, as they have the previous two sessions. (I expect we'll be back at it next time as well - while this weather is not unusual, it doesn't seem likely to say snowy and cold for longer than a couple of days...)
While I was reading by candlelight, I was reminded of the time during my recent trip when we had a power outage, for two and a half days in fact. The part of Kentucky I was in got hit by an ice storm in late January, and power went out in many areas of the state - in fact, I think parts north of us were without power for over a week. Being out in the country, repairing the lines was not as high a priority, and so we had to live by candlelight at night for two nights.
Trust me, not having the option of flipping on a light makes a HUGE difference in how you think about things, not just lighting but basic comfort and security. I know as I've sat here tonight, I'm very aware that I have power, heat, light, internet - just that I was opting to bypass them for a bit. Knowing that none of those things are actually available - that the fireplace is the only source for heat, that if you don't have a candle or flashlight with you, it WILL be dark wherever you go - that is a very different experience. It certainly has made me take disaster planning a bit more seriously, especially in terms of heat and food preparation. During the blackout, both of these were really significant issues as time went by.
The food prep was actually one of the biggest impacts - we had about a dozen people staying at the site, and even though there was big kitchen area, it was all set up for running on electricity - even the (propane) gas stoves didn't run properly without some electric current. In the end, they actually had to get a generator going just to run the kitchen to prep food for us all, and to keep the (rather large) walk-in refrigerator/freezer unit running. Needless to say, we did not get the rather nice hot meals we had become accustomed to - instead, it was sandwiches and boiled eggs for two days. At least we did get some nice hot oatmeal for breakfast, as well as coffee, which was probably critical in getting us going in the morning.
While it helped make the kitchen at least usable, the generator was not enough to handle running the heaters (propane again), so we kept the Lodge and one of the residential houses warm with ongoing fires. Fortunately, the grounds folks had been keeping us fairly well stocked with wood, though fact is we went through most of it after running the fireplaces in two buildings for 60 hours straight. (This gives a whole new meaning to what it meant to gather and chop wood, one which I had not really thought much about, and certainly never experienced directly.) While there was some talk of trying to get a generator going for the second residential house, it never came together, and I think they may not have had the proper equipment Since this meant that the men ended up sleeping in the basement rooms of the women's house, there was no small amount of consternation over the change in living arrangements.
In the wake of the ice storm, we had two of the coldest days of the whole winter, with strong winds and base temperatures in the teens. As a result, at the end of the second day, the heat level in the basement of the house where the men were staying was getting rather cold, and so they rigged a second generator and redid some wiring just so they could get the baseboard heaters going in the basement while we slept. In a rather ironic twist, the power came back on at 8 PM that evening, and so we ended up back in the other house after all... it was a bit cold, but it was our own space, and it was nice to be "home".
I can't tell you the relief when the lights came back on, not just for convenience, but on a much more basic level. Adjusting to no central heat and no electricity for two days was doable, and I was blessed to be with a wonderful group of people who provided each other mutual support throughout the two days - but even after just two days, it was getting really old, really fast. Surely I was not the only one who was thinking that if the blackout lasted much longer, we should all bundle up and go get rooms in a motel or something, since the power in the nearest town was working just fine.
All in all that was some of the most astounding time I spent there, mostly because we were all facing the same real-world challenge together. After facing a lot of our demons together, and with mutual support, it was quite remarkable how we could handle something which surely would have caused us great anxiety and distress if we were back "out in the world" when it happened. It wasn't just a bonding experience - working with the same folks for days on end took care of that - it was facing a new, unexpected challenge together.
In the end, Earth Hour reminded me of a lot of things - of taking time for myself; of the many ways we can simplify life, if only for a short while; of how very grateful I am for so many of the "basic things" in life that I enjoy, that so much of humanity does not. As I finish writing this, in a coffee shop a few days later, I am safe, healthy, warm, full, and (mostly) content... things which are hardly assured for any of us, but which are few and far between for far too many in this world. I know I've been known to be fairly "doom and gloom" from time to time, but without being dramatic, I would say I think it is likely that we will see more power outages and such as time passes. While these will surely be disrupting, for myself I think they can also be opportunities to change my perspective yet again, to look with new eyes at the wonders I have become so jaded about.
And with that, I need to start making some plans for laying in cooking and heating supplies... *wry grin*
Tags: blackout, challenges, disaster, earth hour, ice storm, recovery, stories
Current Location: Michaelangelo's, State St
Current Mood: 
quixotic
Current Music: None (alas) (gotta get me some ear buds!)
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