life, thoughts

The Sound of Eerie

Lori

Over the weekend, our power went out for a few hours.

Yikes, keep the doors and windows sealed tight to hold in the last shot of a/c. It is August in Florida, after all.

sun burns wmHot sun of Florida

My husband and I had just finished a few chores and were sitting on the sofa discussing the remaining to-do-list when it happened.

While we waited for the electricity to come back on, my husband pointed out the silence. Not only was the drone of our own air conditioning silent, but so were all of the others in the neighborhood. In fact, there wasn’t a peep to be heard. Not a car engine, a lawn mower (it had just rained), or even a dog bark.

I picked up my laptop (running on the battery), and of course, there was no internet connection. I clicked the prompt to look for networks, and the usual list wasn’t there. The screen was blank, other than the words, “no networks found.”

Even though the silence was strange, it was peaceful at first, until I realized we had no connection to anyone or anything. That’s when it got eerie.

elec (800x450)Electrical box across from our house.

Our dependence on technology is scary, and I don’t just mean the internet. When my husband was unable to walk after his accident, our electricity went out one day just before his doctor’s appointment. With no electricity, we couldn’t open the garage door and get our car out. Thankfully, a neighbor came over to unlatch the door from the electricity cord and lift it open for us. My husband couldn’t do it due to his injury, and I didn’t have the strength. I’d blame it on my under-five-feet-tall size, but I’m just a wuss.

My husband has an android smart phone, but I use a land-line. I haven’t heard a good quality connection with a cell phone … ever. Except, both the land-line and cell phone need electricity. The land-line works through the electric powered modem. Why did land-lines used to work without electricity? Why can’t I have a land line separate from the modem?

I’ve always been reluctant to move up to the latest new-fangled technology for this very reason of dependency. I wonder how we would survive if life’s conveniences were no longer available. With the direction our society is taking, it would probably be wise to prepare.

I better get on ebay and start looking for a manual typewriter. God forbid I’d have to write my novels long hand. Maybe I should buy white-out and carbon paper too. No, forget it. I’ll be too busy smashing clothes against a rock at the river.

wshbrd (800x611) wmHave you ever seriously considered what your world would look like without electricity? Do you think it’s a possibility that we could be heading in that direction with our society?

Published by Lori

Observer, thinker, learner, analyzer, and author. Love dogs. Enjoy cooking, laughing and spiritual centering.

25 thoughts on “The Sound of Eerie”

  1. A really powerful solar flare could “take out the grid” for weeks or months. And given our reliance on electricity for everything, I’m not sure how well our society could survive even that. Given that I’m not overly optimistic about humanity, I fear the worst if something like that ever happens.

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    1. I’m afraid, I feel the same. It’s probably why we should be finding communities of people we trust. I haven’t found that where I live, unfortunately. Wow, where’d my optimism go? 😛 Gotta live in the moment.

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  2. Having your a/c out in Florida is reason enough to panic! I’m with you; we’ve become so dependent on our machines. I am most concerned that we are allowing them to take the place of our relationships. I’m glad you had that neighbor to help you.

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  3. When I was growing up we had power cuts, but then there didn’t seem to be any for years until fairly recently. We’ve luckily never had one that lasted very long, but I think we don’t actually realise how many things rely on electricity. I think we could well be on a path to shortages in the not too distant future – it would be scary to think how we’d cope.

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    1. I’ve been fortunate not to have had many outages in my lifetime, but like you said, I think they are coming. I hope I live further north by then. 😛 Thanks for sharing your experience, Andrea.

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  4. In the city no power can occasionally be problematic – infrasture is good but manmade incidents happen. 26 flights to walk down with no elevator at the office. Electrical security swipe at our apartment complex’s front and garage doors. But once inside at least the cooktop and hot water work off gas. And we have mobile phones and wireless broadband.
    At our house in the country we are prepared for power outages – they happen fairly regularly, and have lasted 3 days or so including during flooding with no way out. It pays to have some forethought. The landline house phone is a basic model hooked directly up to the line so doesn’t require power – no good trying to dial 000 in an emergency otherwise. The internet doesn’t work out there anyway. We have rainwater tanks, gas powered barbeque, hot plates and heater, plus a woodfire and solar & battery lights & candles. And a store of emergency pantry food. A diesel power generator is on list. We’ll be ok in the event of an apocalype as well 😉

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    1. Sounds like you’re prepared. I don’t even know if they offer land line phones without a modem here anymore. In Florida, most people don’t have gas, because we are so close to water level here and can’t dig to lay pipes. So, everything is electric except our gas grill. If I ever get a chance to move back north again, I’m taking it. Thanks for sharing your preparedness, Ella Dee.

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    1. It is scary to think about. I feel like I should prepare, but I probably wouldn’t even think of all the things needed to do so. Thanks for reading, Anneli.

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  6. Florida in August without air conditioning is torture. I’m happy to hear everything is back to normal, Lori. Have you ever had to evacuate due to a hurricane? When my parents lived in Florida, they had to evacuate for over a week. There was no power, no gas, no food, it’s a frightening scenario indeed.
    I hope your husband continues to do well. 🙂

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    1. I live about 50 miles from the coast and haven’t had to evacuate in 25 years. However, I’ve seen my share of hurricanes come across here, and it’s always frightening. The longest we were out of power from a hurricane was one day, only because we didn’t get a direct hit here. We have a generator, but have not needed to use it, and because of that, I think it’s gone bad now. You may not know because you haven’t been following for long, but if I didn’t have to live here, I wouldn’t.

      Thanks for your good wishes for my husband. I’m hoping to post an update next week.

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      1. You’re very fortunate, going without power for only one day.
        I do seem to recall you mentioning your lack of love for the state of Florida. 🙂 I lived there for 6 months. It’s a great place to visit, but I need the change of season.
        I’ll look forward to the update on your husband.

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    1. I know, right? You should hear the squeal of panic that comes outta me when my computer says there’s been an error and needs to restart. It does that sometimes with a big old blue-screen and sad face. Sometimes this thing seems like my bff. Thanks for sharing your panic story, Robin.

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  8. Great post! It is scary to think how dependent we’ve become as a modern society on both electricity and the Internet. Sometimes it’s good to unplug (though ideally when planned and not in the summer with no AC!).

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  9. It’s when things like this happen we realize how vulnerable we are in today’s society and how dependent we are. I was without lift for a couple of days … and wasn’t I struggling with my sore knee. But the heat you have just now would kill me. We had a very hot summer this year and there was days it made me sick even.
    I hope that your husband is doing progresses in the right direction. My thoughts goes out to you both.

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    1. True, it does make us vulnerable, Viveka. Thanks for your good thoughts for my husband and me. We’re moving forward pretty well. I’ll be putting an update on my blog next week. Good to see you.

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      1. Good to see you too!!! I will look out for your update and I’m so glad that things are moving in the right direction.
        So happy for your husband and you! It has been tough for both of you.

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  10. I always say that any future ‘apocalypse’ will be due to a huge cyber attack, because we’d be crippled without technology. Hate to think about it. Just like I hate to think about Florida with no air conditioning…

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    1. It’s so true. It would certainly be an apocalypse without electricity. I have some preparations, but they won’t last forever. I hope I can get out of this state if that ever happens. Ugh. Thanks for stopping by to read and comment, Miss Carrie.

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  11. Our electricity seems to go out every time the wind blows. I know what you’re talking about. I do silly things like think, “Oh well, I’ll just do some laundry.” Uh, no you won’t! Or, “I’ll just cook lunch, or call a friend to pass the time.” Thank goodness I read real, paper-printed books, so there’s something I can do without electricity.

    I’ve also been without AC in Florida. It’s the pits . . . of hell!

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    1. Oh boy, it sure does sound like you know what it’s like to be out of electricity, both in Nashville AND Florida. You put it so well. I kept thinking I could go do some chore or something, and then realized I couldn’t without the power on. We’re in trouble if we ever lose it for good, and I’ll be high-tailing it out of Florida. Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Miss Anita.

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