Power Outages

[playfelt]

Southweatern Ontario used to have a big ice storm every winter around February and my birthday every year - many a birthday party cancelled. It usually resulted in several days of ice, closed schools and power outages. The way the streets had been designed our power actually came from the back of our house and was tied into the same line that served the fire station a couple blocks away. We were always the first house on the street to get our power back and many years we became a soup kitchen to the neighbourhood with everyone bringing over a big pot to boil water and any veggies they had laying around. We always had soup bones in the freezer from getting half a beef so soup it was dutifully doled out. All of the houses around us went up months/years after ours did and their power came from a different transformer.

Along with this though was the fact thanksgiving weekend was also about spending time preparing making sure there were plenty of supplies like canned food that could be eaten as is, flashlights, batteries, fuel for the coleman stoves even though camping season was over - easier to use that on the porch than dig out the BBQ and hope it would work. Sleeping bags were stored where they could be reached etc. We do take so much for granted and forget just how quickly our lot in life can change. Here in Ottawa they lived through that ice storm several years back and even a few of those veterens admit to letting their guard down even though they know the potential results.