J.R. Johnson

Right now I’m experiencing one of those moments where something goes wrong and I realize how incredibly fortunate I am in general.

The power went out about an hour ago. I’m writing this on my laptop, wishing its battery lasted longer than two hours on a full charge. I won’t have enough juice to get any real work done even if my connection to the internet weren’t down and most of my files on my desktop computer. A hassle, to be sure, and a real problem from a work perspective, but you know what?

I’m damn lucky.

Outages like this are rare here. When I wake up in the morning I do so to an (annoying) alarm clock, flip on the lights, and go about my day. I power up my computer, defrost frozen fruit in the microwave, blend up a smoothie, hit a button to close the garage door. If I need to go to the basement I don’t have to find a flashlight. My telephone, wireless router, clocks and refrigerator, all reliable contributors and as such, usually taken for granted.

Not so today.

I’d include a number of telling statistics on the number of people living without reliable (or any) electricity today but I can’t, because right now there is no Google for me.

I’ll take a pause, give myself a moment to let that sink in: there is no Google. No immediate access to facts and figures, and also no access to files or appointments or phone numbers or email. More critically, no refrigeration for medications or perishables, no air conditioning for the elderly, and for some, no way to call for help if they need it.

As usually happens when the power goes out I am making a list of things to do for next time. I have an analog phone that works without electricity, the number for the utility company written down on an actual piece of paper, and a battery-powered lamp, but as soon as the power comes back on I will also print out more phone numbers, save my files to yet another location, and charge up my devices.

Ah, the room I’m in is suddenly filled with a cacophony of sound, appliances beeping, water pump bubbling, compressors humming. I’ll reset the clocks, boot up the computer, post this missive. And then, when that is done and power is once again unremarkable, I will go back to what I was doing before. Working, warming up lunch in the microwave, checking Google.

And being damn lucky.