This thing called sleep

I discovered something yesterday afternoon. When power is completely gone... when there's not enough light to see where you're going - even when your pupils are opened to the max - there's one thing that's still possible... sleep!

Having coincidentally followed on the heels of a night when I didn't leave work until after 2AM (nearly a 16 hour shift), it wouldn't have taken much effort to coax me into an after-work nap. The way these things normally go, I would have gotten home at 7 or 8PM (the price of getting to work at 11AM after a late night) and crashed for a few hours, only to wake at 3 or 4AM and get online. Instead, we were let out at 4:30, figuring that even if power was restored quickly, it would only come back on in time to leave.

My usual 10-minute trip home took about 40 minutes. For the most part, people were courteous. Despite massive lines of cars, there were no car horns. However, this concept of treating out-of-order traffic lights as a four-way stop was foreign to those who were accustomed to following the lead car through an intersection, regardless of the colour of the light. It took some bravery to edge into the flow of traffic, deciding after a significant wait, that it was our turn to go. While this may have been a bold move, nevertheless, the people whose progress I interrupted seemed to understand, and there were no horns or words exchanged.

Trying to eat dinner would have been a dilemma. My stove (which I never use because of my microwave) is electric, so it was of no use. And I knew the restaurants in the area would be without power. So I did what I always do after a long day at work. I took a nap.

My understanding is that the nap lasted about 4 hours. I say understanding because at 9:30ish, it was pitch-black. No night-lights, no LEDs on my computer speakers... nothing! I fumbled around in the dark until I found my cellphone, and used it as a flashlight to navigate around the apartment. I don't have a land-line phone. My cell is it! So I called my wife to find out how she was coping in the dark. I knew she had been affected, despite being in Windsor, since on the way home, the news had stated the blackout affected Detroit.

To my surprise, she told me the power had come back on 10 minutes earlier. Secure in the knowledge that power was only minutes away, I made my way upstairs to inform the landlord that power would be restored soon. I'm glad I made the trip. Though he's a great landlord, we really don't have a need to talk to one another. He's got his life; I've got mine. But on a night when nothing else was working, we took time to sit and talk. It turns out that he had been unable to call his wife, since his cell phone didn't want to work. I loaned him mine, and he was able to get through to her.

Then, he asked whether I wanted one of the candles that he had placed around the house. I accepted, and when I finally returned to my apartment, I was able to prepare a cold-cut sandwich by the light of the candle. After one more call home, I headed to bed about 11:30, hoping that, come morning, the power would still be out, and I would get the day off. I woke up around 4:30AM, and noticed that my bedside alarm clock was flashing. Damn! Power had come back exactly 59 minutes earlier.

I was surprised when I got to the living room, and found all my computer equipment running. Surprised, because, when I got home after work yesterday, my monitor and computer speakers were still on - powered by my UPS, which was doing it's best to warn me that power had been cut. I had turned off the UPS to silence it's alarm and conserve battery power. This morning, when I saw the computers were powered on, but the monitor and speakers weren't, it hit me... for the past couple of months, I've had my computers plugged into the non-battery-protected sockets of the UPS! Doh!

As soon as I post this entry, I'll remedy that situation.