Here's a pic of the aftermath:
It's sad how we all now depend heavily on technology and electricity to live. If we lose one of them, life becomes an "inconvenience." No power = no lights, no heating, no computer, no TV, no internet, etc. Actually, the only thing I had that I could use to communicate with the outside world without having to go outside was my iPhone; even then, I had to use it sparingly to avoid total battery discharge.
We learned to make the most out of it. Since my brothers and I were unable to use our computers and the internet, we weren't isolated in our own rooms, doing our own things; instead, we sat at the kitchen table and talked on Saturday. Good times. We also spent other days at the mall or at Ray's apartment at school with other church brothers. Props and thanks to them for letting Ant and me stay at their place!
One thing that I noticed during this time was a change in living and lifestyle. Once it got dark, there wasn't much I did at home except sleep. That, in turn, allowed me to wake up early with the sunrise. The outage also emphasized a more conservative mentality - definitely conserving electricity, hot water (not sure if this was a problem or not), food storage (eat what you make the day of), etc.
On late Wednesday morning, we saw a caravan of power company vehicles driving through our neighborhood, and we knew that day was the day that our power would be restored. Yep, that was it. Minutes later, the lights, refrigerator, microwave, internet, etc. all came back on. There was so much excitement in the air. Hope has returned!
I guess we could've stayed at a hotel or other temporary housing options, but such a so-called inconvenience was more of a worthwhile experience. It's good to jump out of the comfortable lifestyle and adapt to a less-comfortable one. Would I welcome another power outage? Probably not. But if I had to deal with it, I would have no (or very little) problems/concerns.
