More heat than power!

The sky was low and heavy with pending rain. The air was motionless and thick as molasses. All felt sticky and looked eerie. I made my way to my class thinking that the sky could open up at any moment. During class the lights flickered a few times. We could hear the trees rustling, it was quite windy out there. Then the rain started. Hard. It sounded like pellets were hitting the windows. By the time I left, Mother Nature had calmed down a little.

While heading home, I was surprised to notice how dark everything was. Power was out. Again. But not in the sky! Despite not having streets lights, the lightening was making everything bright as a full moon does. The closer I was getting home, the darker it was getting. Along the way I could see that big buildings only had their emergency lights on. Everything else was pitch black… At times the sky was so lit up it looked like when there’s fireworks – we were given a free show of natural fireworks, but colourless!

The suburb where we live is quite unstable. As soon as it is a bit windy the power goes off. Since everything was out, I took the “back way” home, i.e. little streets instead of using the boulevard. I’ve realised a while ago that drivers forget their basic driving rules when power is out. It’s almost as if their brainpowers are out as well! They simply forget where the street lights are, they forget that they have to stop on a flashing red or like last night, even if it’s not flashing. They forget all about being courteous : no electricity = no manners! A big free for all!
So, by using the little streets, which were VERY dark, I only had stop signs & less people. It was strange to see everything so dark except for those small solar lawn lights along some pathways. Something to be said about solar energy!

When I finally made it home, after struggling to find the right key and aligning it when I could hardly see my hand in front of my face, I was welcomed with the smell of my Honey Dew candles. Hubby had lit all he could find. The house was still cool. That was at 10pm. Hubby had made dinner; improvised tuna salad – he cooks on nights I have classes. We ate by candlelights, the he brought down my laptop and two shows he had previously recorded on DVD. We watched “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Supernova” while I was preparing and chopping a big bag of rhubarb that a client had given me earlier that day.

Growing up I often heard my parents say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity”... At the time all I knew or cared about was the fact that it was summer and the hotter the better. I’m older now… I do care!

Yesterday was a damn hot day in Montreal. The temperature was at 35°C (95°F) at 9 pm and with the humidex factor it was 44°C (111.2°F)… I wanted that rain and that cool breeze after a good storm, but it wasn’t there. By the time we went to bed the house was no longer cool. We opened some windows and lay there hoping for a breeze… nothing! Rien du tout! The only good thing was that I enjoyed falling asleep with the sounds of the crickets. It felt like camping, but only in the comfort of our home.

Our whole area was out, "major power outage" as Hydro Quebec said on their recorded message. I wrote this post on paper first, I actually enjoyed that! Had to wear a watch all day. Went for Dim Sum for lunch with Hubby who came home early from his client. It felt like we were playing hooky… but we were only powerless!

Our power was out for over 17 hours. And when it came back I fell asleep on the couch reading…

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Photo: Thunderstorm