More Blackouts

On Saturday, February 25, I posted a few impressions from the middle of a blackout which affected hundreds of thousands of people in Michigan, maybe over a a million. Two days later, on Monday, February 27, the power came back on. 

And it stayed on for four whole days, until Friday, March 3. There had been a big snowstorm overnight, and when I opened my eyes in the morning, the red LED clock that sits close to my face as I sleep was out.

This time it was much warmer than the previous blackout. Once again it seemed our whole block was affected. As late morning came on, my major problem personally was caffeine withdrawal. There was no way to heat water in my place. I headed off to a steakhouse, the nearest place that would have coffee. Google maps says it was a 4/10 of a mile walk. It didn't feel that long. The biggest problem was finding dry sidewalk or street to walk on amid huge piles of melting snow. 

On the way to the steakhouse I could see kids sledding down two hills in the public park nearby. On the smaller of the two hills, smaller kids were not moving very fast. Bigger kids were really zooming down the bigger hill. Near the steakhouse, people said there they had had no interruption in power.

The steakhouse was sort of like a return to my childhood: rural Midwest, 50 years ago. The coffee was nothing fancy. It was what people used to call "Joe." But it was strong, the waitress was very nice and she kept it coming, and after I while I decided to have some eggs Benedict. They make a big serving of eggs Benedict. I walked home in a much better mood than I had been in walking out, with the caffeine energy competing with sleepiness from a huge meal in a very pleasant way.

It wasn't nearly as cold as the previous blackout, but that night it was plenty cold enough. The next day, most of the snow blocking my car in had melted. I dug out the rest and headed to the library, and to the coffee shop adjacent to the library, or, actually, IN the library, which makes a great almond-milk mocha latte. 

This library is where people come to warm up and charge up their phones and laptops during blackouts. And that's exactly what I was doing when I got an email telling me that Amazon had made a delivery back at my place. I looked around for a photo of the delivery on the Amazon website, and sure enough: the package was outside, right next to the door of the enclosed porch, instead of inside that door, as is my standing request, and as Amazon does most of the time. 

I've never had a package stolen when it was left outside like that. I've never heard of any such thefts anywhere near my home. But anyone who is obsessive-compulsive will understand that that doesn't matter. I had to return home immediately to get that package inside before someone stole it or an unexpected downpour got it wet, or some huge stray dog picked it up between his jaws and began to to carry it west toward Nebraska. 

I retrieved the package. I changed into clean clothes. I was ready to return to the library for more warmth and wifi and recharging when I noticed that the sun was shining very brightly into the living room. Then it occurred to me that it was strange for the living room to be all lit up at that time of day -- and THEN it occurred to me that I had left the living-room light on, and that my electricity was back.

And the electricity meant that I could get my laptop online from home -- except that now my Internet was out. My brother called to see how I was, I told him: fine, except for the Internet. He suggested calling tech support. Sure enough, just like that, after two calls to tech support, BAM, my Internet was back.

Some people who, like me, favor big changes in the local energy structure, such as massive adoption of rooftop solar, are hopeful that blackouts will win people to our cause. While I certainly agree that massive adoption of rooftop solar would both help prevent these blackouts, and keep more people warm during blackouts (besides things like cutting way down on pollution and greenhouse gasses from electricity generated from Koch Industries coal), I don't see a lot of local people saying the same things. Solar energy remains far from widespread in Michigan. I think we've got a lot of hard work to do in changing public opinion.

Too Much Coffee Man

I quit drinking coffee-- I don't know how long ago. I'm really bad at remembering how long ago things happened. A few months ago. Maybe a year ago. I don't know. I was feeling kind of sick, and I wondered whether I'd feel better if I quit drinking coffee, and I definitely did feel better -- except for missing the taste of the coffee and the rush it gave me.

Anyway, lately -- I don't know how recently exactly -- I'd have one coffee every now and then. And it seemed that if I just had one, and didn't have one every day, I didn't feel sick. A couple of times before today -- I don't know how many times exactly. Maybe 3 -- I had gotten a small mocha from Sweetwater's Cafe, and it was really good. So good that today I felt like experiemting and getting a medium or a large.

So I went to Sweetwater's and ordered a large. Then, while they were making it, I noticed that the menu on the wall didn't say Small, Medium and Large -- it said Single, Double, and Triple.

I asked, Does this mean there's 3 times as much caffeine in there as in a single mocha. They said, Yeah. I said, Wow. I don't drink coffee every day. They said, We can refund your money and start over if you want. I said, No, it's fine. I like new experiences.

So I went to Kroger's, chugging on my triple mocha, to get a piece of school & office supplies which I needed, but, for my 2nd trip to Kroger's in a row, they didn't have it on the shelf. (Kroger's was where I had been getting this item for years.) Even though I was telling myself to be careful and cool it, because the unaccustomed caffeine level might make me inappropriately excitable, I exclaimed, "C'mon, Kroger's, get your shit together!" And I may have said it inappropriately loudly.

Then I thought that the drugstore at the other end of the strip mall might have what I was looking for. Then, on my way to this drugstore, I remembered that there was a huge office-supply store on the way to the drugstore. I drained the dregs of the triple mocha, went into the office-supply store, muttering a bit, trying not to mutter too much or too loudly. I'm not sure how well I succeeded in this attempt to control myself. The caffeine was really affecting me a lot.

Sure enough, they had exactly what I was looking for, and priced lower than Kroger's, which should come as no surprise to anyone.

Alas, however: there seemed to be only one register open, and there was a line. No self-checkout registers whatsoever.

But, aha! In another corner of the giant store, a young woman was standing next to what appeared to be a cash register, and a sign which said "check-out"! I approached and asked whether she could check me out. She gestured toward the other corner of the store, where there was one register open, with a line. I said, "Yeah, but there's a line." She said some things explaining why she wasn't going to check me out, things which I didn't quite hear, we went back and forth about it, several times, finally I turned my back and exclaimed, "Fine!" and took one stride toward the register with the line, when she said something else I didn't quite catch -- she was soft-spoken, and I've listened to a lot of extremely-loud music over the course of decades -- and I turned back, and, to my surprise, she was waiving me in after all. Seemed all I'd had to do to convince her was give up. I thanked her several times during the course of checking out.

I was waiting in a left-turn lane at a stoplight on the way home when a semi pulled up beside me in the adjacent lane, which was a right turn lane, but when the light changed, the semi turned left, cutting me off. I yelled a bit before telling myself 1) that I definitely had much too much caffeine in my system, and 2) that it was entirely possible that the driver of the semi was completely unfamiliar with this area and was not a dick at all, but a good guy doing the best he could. The drive home was less than a mile and a half altogether, but I yelled at several other drivers, and then each time reminded myself that I had way too much caffeine in my system and that it was threatening to turn me into a dangerous maniac.

But I got home okay, and put some of that excess energy to work writing this essay. I hope you enjoyed reading it more than I've enjoyed writing it. This is definitely too much caffeine. It's not pleasant. Well, live and learn. Maybe wait a week or more before having more coffee, and then, maybe a single mocha again. Maybe a year or two would be better than a week.

Great Big Fat Guy, Day 606

I've been sick lately. The last few days. I think I'm better now, but I'm still early enough in the recovery that I don't want to say for sure that the flu, or whatever it was, is past. I feel good, but I'm still a little wobbly.

Four days ago, on Thursday -- here come four words I hadn't pictured myself saying -- I quit drinking coffee. I expected that to be a lot harder than it was. On the other hand, maybe the withdrawl was severe, but it just blended in with the overall sickness so that I didn't notice it as a separate thing. My coffe-drinking tastes had been getting fancier and fancier. I have an elaborate coffee-maker made by Cuisinart. I was drinking a blend imported from Itay -- and then, boom, gone, that's history. I feel a little sad about that. Is this permanent? We'll see.

9 days ago, I turned 56. Jesus, I sure got old fast. 56?! When did THAT happen? Anyway, I haven't felt like exercising as much, and I don't know how much is laziness, how much is health issues which can be addressed -- by, for instance, no longer ingesting something which was delicious and comforting and every morning like a big brown steamy hug -- and how much may be things like depression, and how much is just natural, because it's just me getting old. I know, I know, there are inspiring stories of people who are running Iron Man triathlons and being fashion runway models at age 95, and they always say: if THEY can do it, YOU can do it! But lately I've been wondering whether it's just bullshit to think that anybody can do anything that anybody else ever did. I mean, hey, good for those 95-year-old supermodels, bless their hearts, really. But maybe the chances most of us have of doing what they do are about the same as their chances of winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.

I would like to win the Nobel and also be super-buff at age 95. But realistically, I may only be capable of doing one.

Something to think about.

Hit it, Katy!