Re: power

[Don Smith <dasmith at rotse2_physics.lsa.umich.edu>]

My power experience:

I was sitting in the Detroit airport, waiting to board a flight, when the power
went out.  Needless to say, I did not get to Boston that weekend as planned.
Instead, I had a just delightful weekend with friends here.  It was amazing --
since all my plans for the weekend were in a different state, it was like
getting three days as a free gift.  I got out of the airport just in time (I
went up to the counter and asked if I could get a voucher for another weekend,
and while I was talking to the attendant, they canceled the flight.  When I
turned around, there was a 50-yard line behind me.), and drove home through a
world without traffic lights.  Then I called up friends, and we made frittatas
and gazpacho and stayed up talking until midnight, and then I walked home
across town, and it was gloriously dark: Mars was glowing balefully not far
above the horizon, and the nearly full moon was chasing it off.  People were
hanging out on porches by candlelight; it was a different world.  Then Friday
power came back on at my house around 11 am, but some friends of mine who were
still out decided to grill up all the meat that was thawing in their used-to-
be-freezers, so we had a backyard barbeque, which promptly became a soggyque
when the heavens opened and a deluge of noachian proportions was unleashed upon
us.  Undaunted, we squished inside and talked and laughed and ate and
occasionally listened for updates on a hand-crank radio.  The power came back
on around five, and it was amazing how fast the mood changed.  It was like this
pressure of "gotta *do* stuff" came back.  Within minutes, we had scattered.
But we did all get back together that night and watched a movie at my house,
which was really fun.  Then I had a weekend to read, work on my light design,
go canoeing, and otherwise relax.

So, I feel bad for everyone that was caught in elevators (can you imagine if
you had just put your credit card in an ATM???), but for me, it was a real
life- and community-affirming experience.

And I heard you could see stars in Manhattan, so it can't have been all bad.

Yours,
-- 
Don Smith                           Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
donaldas at umich_edu                                http://www.rotse.net/dasmith/

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