Power Outage

I was reading "Harry Potter : The Deathly Hallows" when the bedroom lamp flickered. Then, it was gone. The whole house was in complete darkness.

I walked to the window, and looked out.

It felt like Dumbledore had used his Deluminator to darken the neighbourhood, just like he did for Privet Drive. There was no electricity, and no internet. The wind was blowing fiercely outside. The huge oak tree outside our apartment was waving its branches wildly. Occasionally, one or two smaller branches would break, fall and hit the roof with a loud "THUD". Snow was blown and drifted everywhere. The heat from the heater became weaker and weaker, and was soon gone. The temperature outside the house, factoring in the wind chill, had a real feel of at least 25 degree Celsius below zero. There was nothing to do, except to look out of the window. Just like the deep-in-thought squirrel in the photo.

It was tough adjusting my eyes from the brightly lit bedroom, to the sudden complete darkness in the room. It was more comfortable looking out of the window, with the neigbhourhood lit by moonlight reflected by the snow.

I realised, with this power outrage, how we had taken electricity for granted. It is always there, just a click away. And how our life revolve around the Internet. Without power supply, and with the snowstorm passing outside, I fully empathized with people who had to live in the bitterly cold, without power supply for a couple of days last year, because of a snowstorm.

I am thankful that the power outage lasted only two hours. And I am grateful to workers who helped restored the supply so quickly despite it being a weekend and late at night, as well as workers who worked through the night in the bitterly cold to clear the roads of snow.

Life in the woods is slow moving. I guess the slower pace of life has helped me to slow down, and looked at things differently. It has definitely helped me learnt to appreciate what I have, and not to take them for granted. And I am thankful.