Ah, involuntary simplicity. We're experiencing a windstorm of some kind. About 2 hours ago the power stopped for good - embarrassingly enough, while I was shut away in the bathroom (a.k.a. the only room in the house without a window.) Feeling somewhat trapped, I asked the Boy to bring me a candle. Five minutes later he confessed to the closed door that he couldn't find a match and I'd have to 'fly blind' if I ever wanted to get out. I firmly believe that it was indignation that allowed me to navigate in the dark - after all, I knew of a half-dozen matchboxes lying uselessly around the house. And then, as I was finally opening the door, the Boy bustled up with a lit candle.

It's still burning there now. We have no choice if we ever want to see while using the facilities.

It's been a fairly productive Sunday afternoon for all that. I used the laptop battery to write 80% of the first paper due tomorrow and I'm still in the paper notes stage of the second so no disruption there. It's amazing how much of my life is tied to electricity; I need to finish these papers, so if the juice comes on at 3 a.m. then that's when I'll be at the terminal.

Of course, it's a lot easier to make that plan at 5 p.m. than it is to follow through at 3 a.m.

The Boy is making up for the lack of power with his own unique brand of nervous energy. He just about drove me stone nuts until he found a project: sorting and organizing our CD's. Well, it makes him happy.

As for me, I'm about to find out what we can eat for dinner without a stove. Hmm. If I knew that lunch would be my last heated meal, I definitely would've eaten another grilled cheese sandwich. The Boy is about to go through the cupboards while we still have some daylight.

"canned beans?"
"we're not hobos."
"vodka..."
"so we can forget about the cold!"

Because, of course, the house is heated by electricity. It's getting colder in here by the minute & sitting here wearing 5 sweaters, I'm beginning to be reminded of the Entropy Apartment where nobody wanted to pay the heating bill...

- transcribed from paper, of course.

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1 year ago today: his heat signature talks to me