Here we sit in the descending darkness three hours after a power outage. At about five a thunderstorm with thunder, lightning, hail, and strong winds came through. In the middle of working on our computers the Internet went out on our modem. Then we heard a clap of thunder very close and then another. Our power went out. Later my wife said the second seemed more like an explosion of a transformer.
I used my cell phone to call the power company. The automatic system informed me that 2,956 customers were affected and crews would be working on it as soon as possible. I hoped not too soon because the weather was still rather bad.
We considered going to the restaurant at the corner but figured they wouldn't be able cook much, and so I made tuna salad.
I read the New York Times on my iPhone and played a lot of Sudoku. My wife read the paper copy of the Duluth News Tribune and then a book. As it got darker we gathered flashlights and put them where we could find them in the dark.
About twenty minutes ago I looked out the front window to see if the corner restaurant had any cars in its parking lot. It did and its lights were on! It is on a different local grid! We could have gone there for supper and had coffee afterwards!
Oh, well! My wife is ready for bed and reading a book by flashlight. Hey, the power just came back on! Thanks to the Minnesota Power crews who are ready to work on a Sunday evening.
We'll get everything back in order and I'll send this on my laptop.
We considered this power outage as a minor inconvenience that we were certain would be fixed in a reasonably short time. Even if the repair had taken several hours longer, it still would have been only an inconvenience. Considering how many people whose lives have been turned upside down by violent storms, fires, and wars we can only look at our little problem as just that, a little problem.
