You all know about my ongoing PC problems. Lord knows I’ve bitched about them often enough. Well, yesterday was another one filled with frustration. So, around 8pm last night, with “moderate to strong” thunderstorms predicted to be moving in (which could knock out the power anyway), I decided to just leave the damn thing off when it froze up and sat down to watch a couple of baseball games on TV instead. Now as I said, we were expecting storms to come through, which could possibly cause the power to go out, but when the lights went out all over the area around 8:30pm – a full 2 hours before the storms were predicted to arrive – it came as just a bit of a surprise! 
So, there I was, sitting in the dark, wondering where the hell my flashlight and candles were. Well I never did find my damned flashlight (another casualty of my son’s having lived here I suspect), but after lighting the few candles I could find at strategic spots around my apartment, I settled down into the maelstrom of my raging inner dialog, hoping it would all be over before I drove myself crazy – a thing that people with mood disorders (like me 
) do so awfully damned well! 
It’s not so much that my thoughts were unusual in and of themselves. After all, they were the typical head-slap ramblings over being “unprepared” for emergencies, being too “dependent” on others, and not “measuring up” to all those ancestors who were able to thrive without all this technological crap. And, running on their own separate track, were all my whining complaints about the games I was missing, the favored shows my DVR was not recording, and “What the hell is taking those incompetent assholes so log!” 
Anyway, the outage lasted roughly 3 hours or so. Not such a long time for “normal” people perhaps, but a virtual goddamned eternity for someone with only psychotic “voices in his head” to help fill the time! And do you know what the craziest form of self-torture my sick mind conjured during this virtual eternity was? It was this damned sickly-sweet song from the Hellboy II: The Golden Army movie I’d watched the night before:
The funny thing is that I’ve always liked Barry Manilow’s music. And I can’t help wondering, now, if my subconscious was punishing me for my dependency shortcomings… or for steering clear of Barry Manilow because liking his music is so fracking un-cool!
I want ice water.
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You don’t have a corner on this, you know. Three hours in the dark with no power would drive me nuts very quickly. For starters, 8:30 is too early to just go to bed. If it’s warm out, you have to worry about staying cool. Or at least getting some air. Reading is too difficult, even with a flashlight or lantern. Listen to music? Nope, not without a battery-powered something or other. Play a game? How? With whom? Go someplace else? I don’t drive after dark. And besides, the power could come back on any minute … or not.
I just remembered I need to order a new battery for this laptop. At least then, if there’s an outage, I’ll have enough juice to compose a nice long post about it.
Hell, even after the power cam back on, I was too rattled for sleep. I ended up watching TV until about 6am. It was a relatively hot night, but the breezes from the incoming storm front help with that a bit. And it wasn’t exactly quiet either. All my neighbors took the opportunity to come outside to socialize. And of course a few of them just had to power up their car stereos…
I really have to try to remember to get another flashlight and more candles when I go shopping again. This happens way too often for me to be so unprepared!
3 hrs is long for anyone, long time since we had such a powercut here but I think I might go slightly loony as well with just myself and the quiet… and having Barry Manilow music looping in your head aint helping
Like I said to PiedType, it wasn’t exactly quiet, and listening to Barry is so preferable to the rap music blasting from car stereos! Maybe I should add one of those cheap MP3 players to my list. I wonder if they come with a built-in radio?
Barry Manilow is so FRACKIN’ cool….he’s so uncool, that he automatically reverses the uncool factor to cool — didn’t you know that Mak?
3hours is a very long time for sure.!
Carmen, it;s so great to see you here again! And Barry Manilow really is a favorite of mine from waaaay back. Mandy will always be right near the top of my list!
Mak you gotta get yourself a guitar so you can whille away the time with it, when you need to. I usualy get in the car and head for a 24 hour truck stop for a cup O joe when the power goes out.
Today my hubby was looking at you tube at something called ‘NASA sounds of the universe’ supposedly its radio waves from each of the planets? I immediatly thought of you. Have you ever heard of it, and do you think its legitimate?
Hellboy rocks.
I was just checking out how to tell a “good” guitar for beginners just the other day! Of course, the instructions were on DVD…
Those NASA sounds of the universe videos sound cool. I’m gonna go check them out! I know that any planet (or moon) with an magnetic field can have the fluctuations in that field translated into sound (the way a radio does). I just saw a post the other day where scientists are “listening” to the sun to see if it can help them to better forecast space weather headed our way.
You mean I’m not supposed to hear Barry Manilow music in my head? Oh dear…
I get the feeling there are lots of us walking around in shame, afraid to let our “inner Barrys” show!
You have no clue how much I can relate to this and with Irene coming I am so glad I read this just now. Now where are the candles since I now have that darn song in my head. HA!
I’m actually feeling like a bit of a whiner now, considering the rough ride some could be headed for. I certainly hope not, but just remember that me and your friends are with you in spirit.
Use the Manilow, Luke… The Manilow will be with you, always…
Young Frankenstein or Steeeeeeeeen
is a wickedly enjoyable movie that I don’t
mind watching again and again…
A good posting Mak
Have a Great weekend
Androgoth
You know a movie’s great when you keep encountering real-life situations that cause scenes from it to flash into your mind!
Thanks my friend. A good weekend to you too.
I rather like The Big Lebowski too,
now that is one of my most favourite
films of all time…
Have a great rest of day
now my wicked friend
Androgoth
You know, I’ve never seen that one. I’ll have to check it out!
We had a power outage that lasted 12 hrs last month…awful…at first, then we went rustic and barbecued play guitar and mandolin was fun.
I love Barry Manilow and it was always so uncool LOL but he gives me a tear in my eye…I still chuckle when I say i like his work of beautiful songs…I don’t know why other than I think he was the one all the guys teased about. I lived in MA when Mandy came out…takes me there.
Anyway, I never seen the Hellboy Flicks…may need to now….LOL.
The Hellboy movies are fun, as long as you don’t expect them to make sense.
I love the way you guys adapted to a bad situation. “Mandy” always brings a tear to my eye, which is why I hate for it to come on when I’m around other people!
After Hurricane Ike in 2008 we went without power for 17 days. It was kind of nice actually. We read books, played games, listened to the radio, and told scary stories. We even got use to not having air conditioning and refrigerator. We went to bed when it got dark and awoke when it became light. The worse part about not having power was listening to the damn generators other people in the neighborhood were using. It would have been very nostalgic except for those damn generators.
I got lucky, I guess, when Ike came through Columbus. My power was out for only a half a day or so, but the news (once I was able to watch it) was filled with stories of people who didn’t have power for weeks!
I wonder what we ever did before the invention of Electricity? Maybe we sat around the camp fire singing ….. wait for it…. Cant Smile without you!
…… Enjoyed this Post IzaakMak and the Vids, not seen before.. … Just catching up…
I’m so glad you liked it. I love our modern conveniences but I can’t help but think they’ve made us less… in a lot of ways. Then again, sentimental old fools like me wouldn’t have had much of a chance back in the “good old days” eh?
Arrgh but maybe in those Good old Days you may have not had to deal with all those modern day pressures we put ourselves under today… You see we think we have to have all of these gadgets.. well maybe in the future we will see we just need to have ourselves… Something I have searched for Long and hard.. and only just am I beginning to see who I am…
have a Great Weekend my friend. Dreamwalker.. still walking the Dream.
Okay, Manilow paired with Hellboy . . . EPIC!!!
I used the power outage time to do some paperwork, bored myself silly, left it in a pile on the dining room table, and started bitching about how much I was sweating. My family was grateful when the power came back.
How did our ancestors do that shit?
I had an even longer outage six days later! Interestingly enough, this time the power company (AEP) has been making automated explanation and apology phone calls. I’ve had four of them so far. Enough already!
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