No apparent reason
Aug. 17th, 2003 01:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaneramosMy parents are at the cottage this week. The cottage has never had power. It has most of the usual conveniences, including a propane refrigerator, wall lamps and fireplace, and an oil furnace. Dad, who is an engineer and fairly inventive, has even connected an electric generator to pump lake water into a large tank on the hill behind, feeding it back by gravity so we have a flush toilet and running water in the kitchen and bathroom. And hot water, thanks to a propane heater.
Part of the fun is not relying on power. My family bought the cottage in time for Thanksgiving weekend the year I was 15. Mom and my oldest brother, in trying to figure out how to use the propane oven, caused a small explosion which gave them sunburns and turned their eyebrows to ash, but eventually we figured it out. The neighbours offered to let us share their electric oven for Thanksgiving dinner, but we declined.
On Thanksgiving morning the power went out for no apparent reason, and stayed out for about 18 hours. Our immediate neighbours used our propane oven to cook their turkeys.
These inexplicable outages continue to occur with startling frequency. It happened for three days last summer in clear weather. So propane is more reliable, and adds to the atmosphere of our cottage.
Earlier this summer my parents had reserved tickets to a musical performance in Gravenhurst on Thursday night. Not knowing anything was amiss, they left the cottage around 6 p.m., drove for an hour and arrived early at the theatre to pick up their tickets. Two people sitting in the box office said they would have to wait and see if the power came back before 8 p.m. My parents were understandably surprised.
"Too bad we didn't know about it," my father said. "We drove all the way from Dorset."
The ticket people looked at each other in bewilderment.
"The power is out everywhere," they said.
My parents waited until 8 p.m. but the power didn't come back on. The box office gave them their tickets to redeem for a future performance. On the way home, Mom and Dad tried to tune in a radio station that would give them some news. Ironically, the one they found was my local station, CJOY, which I was listening to 200 km away. It couldn't offer much information except what officials and listeners were phoning in. It was far more amusing to my parents than to me, sitting here by the light of a single candle.
On the way in the lane, my parents were surprised to see lights on in their neighbours' cottages. Arriving home, they phoned to see if everyone was okay.
Why? What's the matter? the neighbours asked.
The matter was that millions of people were out of power. All over Ontario, the hydro went out. It went out in Toronto, Hamilton, London, Windsor and Ottawa. It went out in all the cities around cottage country: Peterborough, Lindsay and Gravenhurst. It went out in North Bay, a couple hours further north.
But the neighbouring cottagers didn't find out until my parents got home. At Lake Fletcher, the power never went out.
Part of the fun is not relying on power. My family bought the cottage in time for Thanksgiving weekend the year I was 15. Mom and my oldest brother, in trying to figure out how to use the propane oven, caused a small explosion which gave them sunburns and turned their eyebrows to ash, but eventually we figured it out. The neighbours offered to let us share their electric oven for Thanksgiving dinner, but we declined.
On Thanksgiving morning the power went out for no apparent reason, and stayed out for about 18 hours. Our immediate neighbours used our propane oven to cook their turkeys.
These inexplicable outages continue to occur with startling frequency. It happened for three days last summer in clear weather. So propane is more reliable, and adds to the atmosphere of our cottage.
Earlier this summer my parents had reserved tickets to a musical performance in Gravenhurst on Thursday night. Not knowing anything was amiss, they left the cottage around 6 p.m., drove for an hour and arrived early at the theatre to pick up their tickets. Two people sitting in the box office said they would have to wait and see if the power came back before 8 p.m. My parents were understandably surprised.
"Too bad we didn't know about it," my father said. "We drove all the way from Dorset."
The ticket people looked at each other in bewilderment.
"The power is out everywhere," they said.
My parents waited until 8 p.m. but the power didn't come back on. The box office gave them their tickets to redeem for a future performance. On the way home, Mom and Dad tried to tune in a radio station that would give them some news. Ironically, the one they found was my local station, CJOY, which I was listening to 200 km away. It couldn't offer much information except what officials and listeners were phoning in. It was far more amusing to my parents than to me, sitting here by the light of a single candle.
On the way in the lane, my parents were surprised to see lights on in their neighbours' cottages. Arriving home, they phoned to see if everyone was okay.
Why? What's the matter? the neighbours asked.
The matter was that millions of people were out of power. All over Ontario, the hydro went out. It went out in Toronto, Hamilton, London, Windsor and Ottawa. It went out in all the cities around cottage country: Peterborough, Lindsay and Gravenhurst. It went out in North Bay, a couple hours further north.
But the neighbouring cottagers didn't find out until my parents got home. At Lake Fletcher, the power never went out.
