Is it dark here, or is it just me?

We had a power outage today. Lasted about 4 hours, affected about 5000 people. Long enough for the building’s emergency generator to run dry and the emergency lights to run out of battery.

If you were in the stairwell, it was literally pitch black. Only a crack of light could be seen at the base of the fire doors.

In the hallways, by the time you got to the far end, it was just as dark.

There’s something strangely freeing about power outages. It’s not like a snow day, mind you. I can, and did, work throughout it, though I switched to drawing instead of editing for the duration. Our apartment had enough light coming in through the balcony door.

And it wasn’t like it was some Luddite moment, either. Gill still had access to the internet through her phone, which she used as a hotspot so I could stay connected, and she could still work on her laptop.

But for me, it still felt relaxing.

Though, I became aware that was an illusion. Had it continued, problems would mount. The food in the fridge would thaw and spoil, for one thing. Our backup battery for the phone and tablet would only last so long. Things would get stressful.

Still, I enjoyed it while I could.

At one point I let our ferret Fia out into the dark hall. She always wants to go out in the hall. Goes right up to the door and stares at the doorknob like a dog when she knows I’m there to see her.

But she’s never been out there in complete darkness…

So I let her explore. Only it came to a point where I needed to bring her back, and realized the big mistake I had made. I mean… she’s small, dark, and the hall is, as I’ve pointed out a few times, pitch black.

There is light at the far end of the hall, but it doesn’t penetrate to the other end, the end where Fia is hiding.

But juuuuuuust enough to illuminate her tiny white mask, staring back at me, wondering what the fuss was all about.

Of course, it was too dark to get a picture, but I have presented an artistic representation of what I saw up at the top of the page.