Power points

[vettecat]

We lost power for a few hours at the store today (due to a fierce rainstorm). We did what paperwork we could by candlelight, and fortunately the power came back on before it got really dark. Shortly afterwards a frequent customer came in, and we started chatting about blackouts. She said that her kids get completely freaked out when there's an outage. At first I thought that was odd, but then it occurred to me that since we're Jewish (she's not), we're accustomed to the idea of not using power on Shabbos, at least. We set lights on timers, but when one goes off, it's off... and if you get up in the middle of the night, well, it's dark. It hit me as I was talking to her that, outside of a blackout, her kids have probably never been in a situation where they can't turn a light on. That just struck me as interesting for some reason...

Comments

Blackouts

[foolcat.livejournal.com]

Being a city boy; I completely freaked out the first time there was a power outage in Maine. (We averaged 2 or 3 a winter)
The lights went out; I figured Western civilization had ended and the looting would now begin. My wife calmly lit candles and spent the night soothing me.

Re: Blackouts

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I can imagine that must have been unsettling! Hope you got a nice evening out of it, at least.