TMI Tuesday: Power Outage

As I was getting ready for bed last night I could hear the wind screaming against the windows and doings it’s best Jethro Tull impression with our chimney. I guess we were on the wrong end of the thirty percent chance of rain. The wind continued with relentless gusts as my wife and I recounted the day and not long after we both shut our eyes the room went completely dark. With echoes of thunder and strobes of lightening filling every corner of the house, we knew that this was going to be one storm that our son was not going to be able to sleep through. Just as we finished vocalizing that thought our son proved us right.

He was already having some issues staying asleep lately and this meteorological front was the final piece in ensuring that he completely woke up from his peaceful slumber. We could hear him rustling in his crib between the rumbles and as the rain pelted the roof and the waterfall filled the windowsill, he became more and more vocal. As soon as the crying overpowered nature, we knew it was time to comfort him so we got up, rummaged in the nightstand for a flashlight, and prepared for the long night.

As soon as we walked into the room and began trying to sooth him he calmed down and went back to sleep (well, maybe the second time). What ended up getting him was the fact that the electric decided to start stimming, turning on for a second or two every five or ten minutes for about an hour… just enough to wake him up. The other thing that wasn’t helping was the fact that our son was beginning to overheat. He is a little space heater and needs to be kept cool so he was stripped down to a single layer for the night.

Surprisingly, PECO was actually pretty close to their estimate from earlier in the evening as power was restored two hours later. At that point we could all rest a little better and home that we would be able to recover relatively quickly in the morning. It was already going to be a long day for us and now we just added lack of sleep to the mix. It looks like it is going to be a late morning and early night for all of us… it was actually the first morning that I can remember our son not greeting me with a wide smile. Instead, I got a nearly silent snore.

So Long Precious Hour Of Sleep

This weekend our alarms went off a little sooner, our eyes were a little heavier, and our son woke up a little later. The last one was welcomed but the first two we could have done without. With all the changes that have happened recently, daylight saving time was more of a shock to the system than it had been in the past.

One thing that has become precious to us (in addition to our son) is sleep. It is something that we enjoy while it lasts and are still not getting enough of which is why we have been dreading this weekend for months. A single hour may not seem like much to some, there is a good article in Time Magazine about the minimal impact of this time shift, but for us it makes a huge difference in our own sleep pattern and our son’s schedule. With that said, it is nice to wake up to a room filled with sunlight and hopefully the loss of time will mean the rapid arrival of warm weather and a release from the four walls of which we have grown rather tired.

While the momentary loss of sleep is something that we are not fond of, the approach of spring is something that we are both looking forward to. The weather combined with the birth of our son has kept us confined to our house more than usual this year and the ability to go outside and simply walk is something for which we have been longing. Not to mention that the bitter frigidity of the winter has wreaked havoc on the temperature inside our home. And this last note was really the driving force behind the adoption of daylight saving time.

While Ben Franklin is commonly considered the first to propose such an adjustment, the recent history of the adoption has a similar rational. Franklin’s proposal as well as the modern ones were a means of saving energy… candles in the beginning and fuel as the most recent rational. A more detailed look into the modern history can be found on Wikipedia. If you are interested in acquiring some more random knowledge (just in case you are even on Jeopardy) it is definitely worth reading.

So, what it comes down to is that in an effort to save some energy we are going to lose some energy for a day or two. Sometimes that seems like a fair trade but that has to be reserved to hindsight. However, having seen our recent PECO bills this winter I think I am okay with that even if we are a little grumpier than usual this weekend.

Bye Bye Uncle Buck

Having finally finished all the wrapping and with a cup of tasty tea steeping beside me, my wife and I were watching the tail end of “Uncle Buck” on HBO before my wife headed to bed and I was to finish up a few things on the computer. The day was ending just how we would like it to when the night over took the apartment. Around 10:30 all the lights dimmed for a second or two, flashed, and then completely shut down. So long Uncle Buck.

 

At that point we didn’t have many options so we decided to head over to the front desk and try to offer whatever assistance we could. As soon as we manually slid open the front door we could hear the complaints filling the shadow filled entryway. Unfortunately, the weather had just turned colder in the past 24 hours and residents were returning to their apartments from unusually late dinners.

Not helping the situation was the fact that we could all see that the lights were on in every building around us. Simply put, this was not a power grid problem, this was a major building malfunction which seems to have only gotten worse over the past year. The piercing alarm resonating from the basement seemed to confirm the severity of the issue and did not lend an air of confidence that this particular problem would be fixed in a timely manner.

I know what it is like to be behind the desk during those moments and I knew that the situation was beyond his control so my wife and I began helping in any way that we could to make the situation at least a little easier to deal with for everyone. While my wife assisted residents up the stair well and to their apartments (not an easy task given the ages of many of the people) I was doing my best to relay messages, keep track of both entrances, and keep the other dark dwellers occupied by talking about anything but the electric.

After about an hour of walking all around the ground floor, entertaining residents, coordinating with the local police department, and getting updates from PECO and our in house maintenance people the power finally came back on. While there has been the occasional humming traveling through the walls and into our apartment, the power remains on. So, with the rooms again full of light, it was time to turn them off and try to rest before travelling all day tomorrow. Essentially, everything is back to normal at least until the next time the building falters or the grid fails.