I am blogging from my phone, so God only knows what this looks like. We’ve been thrown back to the Stone Age here in West Hampstead, or at least on our side of the street.
At about 1:30 am our burglar alarm went off, which usually happens when the power goes out. We scrambled around to find the code to shut it off, and after a few minutes things were quiet again. But we realized we had no power. It flickered on once or twice, momentarily, before dying completely.
I went out in the street and found all the houses on our side dark, the streetlights out. A guy with the electrical utility walked by and explained something about a fault blah blah and they tried to fix it and it failed again blah blah. Anyway, they called out a crew to dig up the pavement a few houses down in order to replace a cable (I think?). I had an early estimate that we’d have power back by 6 am, but now, at 6:27, i’m thinking not.
I did manage to make coffee by boiling water on the stove, after hunting through multiple cabinets and drawers for our lighter wands. We don’t use them anymore since we got a hob that lights itself, but of course that function doesn’t work without electricity. Thank God i hadn’t thrown them out — i was afraid i had!
(Why doesn’t my phone capitalize “i” in the text? I’m doing a kind of kd lang thing here.)
Now i’m hearing jackhammers. This may be a while.
Well, i had an Olga video cued up for you but that will have to wait until tomorrow.
I had my doctor’s appointment yesterday to follow up on my elevated calprotectin. This new doc, who seems great, suggests i do a capsule endoscopy in order to look at the small intestine, which is basically the only part of my innards that hasn’t yet been endoscopied. This requires swallowing a tiny camera that surveys the length of the digestive tract. It sounds very space age — is Raquel Welch going to be aboard? — but i don’t yet know all the details. He doesn’t seem at all concerned about the dreaded c-word given that i’m healthy otherwise, so that’s good.
Also, I FINISHED “BLEAK HOUSE”!!! All 880 pages. It did finally come together in a more or less comprehensible fashion but i’d still argue that Dickens could have done without about 30 percent of those 65 or so characters.
(Photo: Near my doctor’s office on Portland Place, yesterday morning.)
It’s a few hours later. I hope you’ve been empowered. That photo is great. A before and after image of sorts. I’ll bet the left-hand neighbor frustrates the right-hand neighbor.
ReplyDeleteNot empowered by the time I left home for work. We shut off some of the circuit breakers in the hopes that the alarm won't go off if the power comes back on in our absence! But who knows.
DeleteHope that you are electrified by now! How come some of your I s are capitals and some not? Aah, just looked again.....start of sentence they are capital!
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly. The iPhone knows to capitalize the beginning of a sentence!
DeleteSteve, hi, glad you conquered Bleak House. Dogs and bones spring to mind. And please do spare a thought for Dickens who wrote it. Will have taken him penning it a lot longer than you reading it.
ReplyDeleteSince I am a practical type of person who does NOT need solutions at the flick of a switch, one question: Why, after you had turned off the alarm, didn't you go back to sleep? Who needs light in the middle of the night? Or coffee first thing in the morning. I do think you a really really nice guy, not a bad bone in your body, yet even you appear to have fallen for that which, once upon a time, we used to be able to do without. Happily so. Still, I do concede that a smartphone (I haven't got one because I don't need one; yes, I am a dinosaur) does make an amazing torch. One could, of course, just use a normal torch (remember to keep it always in the same place - a bit like keys and matches, so you know where to locate it/them - even in the DARK) but, hey, why keep life simple when we can allow technology to make it complicated.
Candle light greetings,
U
Oh, I did go back to sleep after we quieted the alarm and I talked to the utility worker. Maybe that wasn't clear. I woke up again around 5:30. Our only concern was that if the power came on in the middle of the night, the alarm would go off again -- so that made falling asleep a little harder!
DeleteAs for coffee, I DEFINITELY need that first thing in the morning.
Will you also have to swallow a microscopic lighting unit? It will be pitch dark in the internal byways of Reed the Reader. Speaking about light, why not pick up some candles and matches on the way home - just in case!
ReplyDeleteI have no idea! Will I glow?
DeleteI hope you'll get the electricity back by today. I suppose it's purely coincidental that you finished Bleak House before you woke to dark house. In our house, even the toilet flush needs electricty (it pumps the water from a rainwater tank).
ReplyDeleteAt least our plumbing functions without electricity -- and the gas flows to the stove, but it has to be manually lit.
DeleteI'll never try to read Bleak House. I've never been a fan of Dickens, and that one sounds particularly horrible.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say "horrible," but it is complex and a bit overstuffed with characters and subplots. It's definitely work!
DeleteCongratulations on Bleak House. Now, read something fun for a bit! (At least you were providing a good examples for students who came by while you were reading.) Sorry about the power. That's beyond annoying. And I'm so glad the follow-up went well. Not being worried about the C word is a big deal and a relief. I hope the other test provides answers.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm switching gears to something completely different next! I have to catch up on New Yorkers.
DeletePower outages leave me feeling so helpless, which is testimony to our lives these days. Luckily, you said this:
ReplyDelete"is Raquel Welch going to be aboard? "
And I got a great long guffaw!
I'm glad you got that. :)
DeleteHere in Lloyd the power goes out frequently for no discernible reason.
ReplyDeleteIt is humbling to realize that we are so dependent on electricity.
Glad that doctor has suggested that test. I want you to get some peace of mind!
Yeah, when I was a kid in Florida we lost power all the time and didn't think much of it. But in an urban area it's much rarer!
DeleteA dichotomy for sure - huddled in the dark while contemplating a camera traveling through your system.
ReplyDeleteLove the kid lang reference.
I've never understood WHY kd lang does the lower-case thing. Or why the press follows her lead on it. When I was a young reporter it used to annoy me -- I felt like having a capitalized name is inherent in the language, not something to be opted out of! (Now I'm less opinionated on that.)
DeleteI was thinking e e cummings. I always blog from my phone, can't see the issue, but anyway I hope you get all lit up again soon.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, e e did it too, didn't he? I'd forgotten that!
DeleteAlthough they are going out of fashion here in the states, I love my gas stove and the ability to cook even when the power is out.
ReplyDeleteWe like ours too. It does heat much faster than an electric.
DeletePoor Mike - when we were without power for 4 days he had to go to a coffee house to get his coffee. I guess he could have broken out the camp stove, but he also wanted to go somewhere with WiFi.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the morning coffee ritual seldom involves ONLY coffee!
DeleteOh, I would be worried to leave the house and Olga in case the power comes back on. Hopefully, it is back on by now and your actions with your circuit breakers kept the alarm from blaring all day.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it apparently didn't go off again when the power came back on.
DeleteI heard that Dickens was so wordy because he wrote for periodicals and was paid by the word. That would explain it. Were you aware that Charles Dickens' home at 48 Doughty St in London is a museum and open for visitors? Sounds like a great place to snap some photographs. (Hint, hint).
ReplyDeleteOh, that DOES make a lot of sense! If so he must have made a fortune with this book. I knew about the museum but I've never been there! A future trip for sure! (Maybe after Christmas, which is probably a mob scene.)
DeleteYou've reminded me that we made it through the entire hot summer without the power going out. That has happened several times since I've lived here and it's amazing how quickly it gets too hot to stay in the apartment.
ReplyDeleteThat entrance in your photos is beautifully symmetrical.
I can only imagine what it's like in Phoenix with no air conditioning!
Deleteyou actually swallow it? and then poop it out? do they try to recover it or just consider it disposable. does it keep sending images as it swirls down the toilet? so I looked it up. you wear a receiver for the images on a belt around your waist and yeah you poop it out and you can flush it down but you have to check your poop for the capsule to make sure it exited your body since under certain conditions it can get stuck.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's how it works. Apparently I swallow a dummy capsule a few days earlier just to make sure there are no kinks in my system that will trap it. The dummy eventually dissolves by itself, if necessary, but the camera one doesn't.
DeleteSudden loss of power is never fun. At least you were able to make coffee/tea.
ReplyDeleteThe capsule endoscopy is a piece of cake. You swallow a marble sized pill (camer) and it takes pictures as it travels through your small intestines. You wear a small recording device, and the pictures are stored there. The doc will review all the pics and provide feedback.
I love the front entry design. The tile is lovely as are the doors. The tile could use a good wash, and it would be perfect.
Apparently I have to do some unpleasant prep beforehand, but not as much as with a conventional colonoscopy. But I can't eat solid food for about 24 hours!
DeleteI love those doors in the photo. They're beautiful with the arched entry. I hope you had power when you got home from work. I've never read Bleak House. I read Our Mutual Friend, which was plenty long. I think my Dickens days are over.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Oh, I haven't tried that one yet. Maybe next year! I loved those doors too.
DeleteNothing puts things in perspective quite like having one's power, gas, or water go out. Living in a rural area where power outages could last hours if not days, we finally invested in a generator. It was one of the better decisions we ever made.
ReplyDeleteThat makes perfect sense in a rural location. I think we'd have done that when I was a kid if we had that option.
DeleteLosing power really brings home how much we depend on devices, appliances etc, these days. Living in a small apartment I have nowhere safe to put a generator. I hope your power was quickly restored.
ReplyDeleteYeah, generators aren't an option for many people! And while for us it's mainly an inconvenience, losing power is life or death for some people -- like those on oxygen machines.
DeleteI have the opposite problem...my phone insists that any i should be I !! And the tablet does it too..
ReplyDeleteThat is a beautiful double doorway..but the floor could do with scrubbing!
Hope you have power restored.
How weird about your phone! Wonder why yours is different from mine? Maybe you don't have an iPhone?
DeleteYou feel helpless and frustrated when the power goes off. It seems like you can't do anything.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good reminder how much we rely on the power always being on.
DeleteI hate power outages. My late husband saw them as an adventure and was very capable handling them. I am NOT. I think you're extremely brave to blog from your phone. I may have done a short post a long time ago on mine. It was painful!
ReplyDeleteIt was actually much easier than I thought it would be. My main complaint was that I couldn't format pictures (or videos!) as I normally would. At least not without a lot of kerfuffle.
Delete