The Worst Blackout Ever

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(Post written while electricity was still out) Upon waking up for work on Saturday evening, or, as many will remember it, the worst 4th of July ever, I shoved myself out of bed to the sound of rain pounding the windows and my air conditioner while random Minecraft horror ARGs played via Youtube on my TV. As I sat down onto my couch to remove my watch so that it could charge, the power flicked off. It did not come back. I heard a loud one-off bang outside as if something had exploded, and through the window I could barely see that tree branches were flying by like little invisible witches.

This would begin some of the most agonizing days ever.

When the wind stopped, we could all see outside that entire trees had fallen, plants had been ripped out of the ground, large branches flew into windshields, power lines laid bent and split literally all over the place, and nobody had electricity.

In the middle of a heatwave.

At temperatures reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit or more, and 90+ percent humidity.

I expected that power would probably be restored while I was at work.

I was extremely wrong.

It is currently July 7th, as I write this, and I am chugging away on battery power and battery power only, because nobody up or down my entire street has power, and most of them are running generators on 40 dollars a day USD. I am not one of those people.

The electric company says power may be restored tonight, or sometime later tomorrow night. None of my clothing is clean, I’ve been sleeping on and off, I’ve had mostly snack food to eat with sporadic Doordash deliveries in-between, and I managed to snag a single night in a hotel for some real sleep and normal activities I usually partake in, before the entire surrounding county booked out the rest of the hotels in the area, including the room I was staying in, for days and days after.

My job expects that I’ll be in sometime tonight to help prepare for the inventory counting that’s coming up in a few days, but the only thing I honestly care about right now is being able to breathe air without the detriment of choking wet heat.

This post itself likely won’t be published until after the electricity is back on, and I can only imagine what that’ll be like. I’m having dreams about my a/c suddenly turning back on.

I usually have dreams about much stranger things than this.