Here’s a fun story.
The week after Hurricane Sandy hit, our weather had returned completely to normal and we were enjoying day after day of bright sun and brisk fall air. We pretty much figured we were out of the woods.
One evening last week, I was just about to close up the shop (so a few minutes before six o’clock), when the power went out. Bryant and I did as much as we could, locked up, and I was almost to my car in the parking lot before I realized that it was really dark out. We walked out to the bypass to check it out, and a quick look up and down the road confirmed that the power on the entire beach had gone out.
As weird as it was, there was also something really cool about the whole town being in almost total darkness. First of all, you could see the stars way better than usual, and even the Milky Way was visible. I bundled up, brought Irie out on the porch with me, and just sat and looked at the stars for a while, until someone the next street over turned on their backup generator that sounded like a riding lawn mower. Ugh.
Anyway, my roommate, Sarah, and I just so happen to be candle hoarders, so I was all set for a few hours in the dark. My evening essentials, as lit by candlelight:
Garnacha:
The original Sherlock Holmes:
My favorite fuzzy slippers (the heat turning off was the worst part of the power outage):
Red wine, my mysteries, and fuzzy slippers. Yes, I am slowly morphing into Stanley Hudson.
Anyway, I found out later that a huge transmission line had gone down and caused blackouts for all of Dare and Currituck counties (oops… pretty sure somebody got fired that night). Ours in Kill Devil Hills lasted about three hours, so it was really nothing to write home about.
The most notable part of the situation was that almost everybody I talked to the next day had gone out to look at the stars. I love that. I think it’s really nice that the instinct of so many people was to take the opportunity to enjoy the quiet, calm, and darkness that is almost never available to us. It’s nice to imagine everyone all over town standing out on their decks and looking up at the same stars.
Well, almost everyone. I’m looking at you, Generator Dude.
