12hrs. without power....
I was just finishing work on Thursday afternoon when the power went off.
My ritual is to call Ruby and/or she calls me.
I was supposed to be heading to a client's house to mow the grass for him.
(I moonlight with an agency that supplies handy-persons to seniors and shut-ins, at a low hourly rate. The extra cash pays for my addiction - model railroading.
)
As I was talking to Ruby on the phone, the power went out.
This wasn't so bad, except that power went off at home at the same time. Uh-oh, this is big! The blackout is effecting at least the whole west end of the city... I decided to head straight home, not knowing what was happening or how long it would last...
I walked a few blocks south to the nearest Subway Station/Bus terminal (Yonge Street & Sheppard Avenue) and waited for a bus westbound to Keele Steet.
At the bus terminal, I heard that the power was off from the Atlantic Coast as far west as Detroit. Uh-oh! My first thought was Terrorists. My other thought was that a computer virus was to blame...
Even though the traffic signals were not working, traffic was going pretty good until I got to Keele Street.
Things were backed up for a couple of blocks westbound and southbound at the intersection.
After a few overpacked buses went south without me, I decided to walk for a while, south to Wilson Avenue (1 1/4 miles or 2kms depending on whether you speak imperial or metric).
I didn't see any more buses southbound on Keele Street, so I ended up taking the bus west for a couple of mainstreet blocks to Weston Road. (Keele Street and Weston Road both run North/South, but Weston Road angles east/west a bit, so that in the north part of the city they are about 2 1/2 miles or 4 kms apart, but in the south part of the city where I live, they merge together.)
Got the Weston Road bus south to home.
So my usual ~1 hour commute took 3 hours. I'm just glad that I had a bottle of Gator-aid in my back pack, or I would have been in trouble from the afternoon heat.
My usual commute is all electic. Traction A.K.A. streetcar to the other Traction A.K.A. Subway.
The power at home came back on at about 4 a.m. so the power was off for almost 12 hours exactly.
Ruby has congestive heart failure, so the heat is a real danger for her. We run a couple of fans during the day to circulate the air, and run the A/C overnight.
Thankfully, the last couple of nights have been cooler and the A/C hasn't been needed.
I'm ticked off though.... I got a call this morning to report to work.
I am a non-essential government employee, and under the state of emergency, declared by the premier, the Public Library is supposed to be closed to conserve power.
The e-mail that I received says, "All staff scheduled to work on Monday, August 18 (At the Toronto Public Library) are expected to report for work as usual, even if the library remains closed to the public."
"According to the employer, a decision will be made as to when the libraries will acually open to the public - they may decide to open them later on Monday."
So I am here at work, having dealt with a couple of lighter than usual deliveries, I am now without anything to do.....
So lights are on, Computers are on, and the A/C is running. But the doors are locked.
We've lucked out here because the power hasn't gone out in quite some time. Thank God for underground power.
