Last night there was a storm with high winds, so I was prepared for the power to go out again. Not prepared in the sense of having bought a backup generator, because let’s face it, given how the pandemic is going, that’s not about to happen any time soon. But I had a cooler ready, filled with ice packs, so I could transfer food from the refrigerator if necessary, as well as plenty of candles, a couple of oil lamps, a fully charged smartphone, a few flashlights, and a deck of playing cards. I also had a paperback book handy in case I felt like reading.
I was doomscrolling on Twitter when it happened, at around 10:00 PM. At first it was technically just a brownout. The lights went out but almost immediately came back on, as did my digital clock (albeit now blinking 12:00 AM), and while the computer shut down and stayed that way, I heard my monitor click back on, followed by the whirring noise of my air filter’s fan starting up again. But then the lights flickered for a final time, briefly, and everything went black and silent. I looked outside my window to verify that the neighbours’ houses were out as well. Then I lit the candles and prepared for what was likely to be a long night of alternative entertainment.
I say “alternative entertainment” with tongue firmly in cheek, by the way. After all, I spent my entire childhood, teen years, and much of my young adult life without computers, hand-held or otherwise, being the primary source of all my entertainment. But whenever the power goes out now it always makes me realise how dependent I’ve become on this technology in recent years. I now use a digital device of some kind to do a great many things for which, not too long ago, the analog versions would have sufficed.
Writing? I had pens and composition books or spiral notebooks (and eventually moleskins once those made a comeback). Reading? I had (and still have) a few hundred hardcover and paperback books, both fiction and non-fiction, at least a quarter of which I have not yet read. Video games? I had board games and also tabletop roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons. And of course, playing cards. Nowadays I use those to play various versions of Solitaire.
That’s what I was doing when my sister knocked on the door to my bedroom. When I answered the door she asked me if I wanted to listen to music with her. I looked at her like she had nine heads, a facial expression no doubt lost in the dim amber glow of the candlelight.
“How?” I asked innocently. Then she held it up; an artefact from ancient times: her CD Walkman.
“No need to charge this,” she said. “It runs on AA batteries.”
I smiled. “Yes, I remember.”
Between the two of us my sister and I had amassed quite the collection of compact discs over the years, which were now stacked on shelves in their jewel boxes gathering dust, but had once been the primary source of our casual music listening. After all, radio stations, with the notable exception of Z-Rock, just didn’t play the stuff we were interested in hearing; at least not before satellite radio, which just goes to show how long ago we’re talking about here.
Nowadays we mostly listen to music on YouTube or Pandora, but we know from experience how quickly that can drain a smartphone battery, and we needed our phones in case of emergency. Again, there was no telling how long the power outage would last. So, with the aid of a mini-speaker we would normally have jacked into a smartphone, we delved into the classics of our CD library via the Walkman, and enjoyed some wine and conversation by candlelight.
When the power came back on a hour or so later–much sooner than we’d anticipated–I wasn’t exactly sorry to have the spell broken, but I was in no real hurry to get back to my computer, either. Sometimes it’s good to unplug for a while, and this was yet another reminder of that. Except we don’t really need the occasional random power outage to unplug, do we? This is something we can do for ourselves, as part of our routine (or a regular break from it, whenever needed).
I think that starting tomorrow, I will unplug for at least an hour each day. Given how much time I waste on my computer not writing, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t. And I can always break out the old pen and paper if I suddenly get the inspiration to write.
