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Sunday, August 17, 2003
The Blackout The first indication that power was out anywhere was when a fax wouldn't go through for one of the folks at my office. Finally, after about six tries, he called to see what was going on and the person, who was just across town, said they didn't have power. But that's not such a big deal, parts of Ithaca seem to lose power all the time. Little power glitches and temporary outages don't really phase me anymore. Then, the bf called me at the office sounding a little distressed, worried about me because of the power outage. And he said that power was out in a bunch of major cities around the Northeast and was I OK? 'Well sure,' I said. 'We've still got power here.' That would only last about 20 minutes. We lost power at my office shortly after 5. The plan was to go to the boss's for drinks and appetizers, so all of us decided to keep that plan... afterall, there was still daylight. On the way, of course, there were no traffic lights, and none of the local radio stations were broadcasting. So it was slow going. We could pick up one station from New York City which only confirmed that there was a blackout, but not much more. The after-work party went well. It was a little outside of town, so you could almost forget that there was any kind of power outage going on. The wine had been chilled already and the food had been prepared before they lost juice... we all hung out on the back deck with cutie patootie kids running all around us. And then, when it was time for dinner, we ventured back into downtown. I couldn't use my cell phone and I had promised to call the bf once I finished at the party so I took a walk over to his neighborhood. And the walk over was really amazing. It was just getting to be dusk... and everyone was out on their porch socializing, reading, or just hanging out. When I walked by, all the people would say 'Hi' and ask how you were. I felt at least a few times, that people would have been very happy to have you just sit and chat with them for a while. And I started fantasizing in my head about what it would be like if we had a forced 'blackout night' once a week, if that might go very far to bring neighborhoods more together. People were checking in on eachother, offering to lend batteries if they had them... candles... Ithaca felt just a little bit smaller and more friendlier. When I got to the bf's place it was pretty hot inside, so we all wanted to be outside... I met a few new folks from the neighborhood who popped over... Everyone had brought a little something from their refrigerator that was sure to spoil if it didn't get used, and so we enjoyed a very elegantly thrown-together, and very inventive dinner. [The ONLY downside to the evening was that being outside, you'd get eaten alive by the mosquitoes. (I'm still itching.)] And then we found out that power came back in collegetown, near campus, and so we went out for a few drinks there. By the time we left, power was on in my neighborhood but not his, and so we spent the night at my place. It was a pretty great night, all told... The night the lights went out in Ithaca. | private feedback | |
Hey! I'm Shane... a proud gay progressive Democrat who has recently relocated to New York City from Ithaca, NY. As I am no longer in Ithaca, I haven't quite decided the fate of this blog. Drop me a line!
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