We’re without power right now. By “power” I mean electricity, lights, heat, even internet. Yes, internet. Two days ago I went to use the microwave to heat up my oatmeal, after I’d spent some time in front of the toasty space heater in my office. Sitting in front of that heater in the morning while I drink my coffee is one of life’s greatest pleasures; I’d almost rather have it than a fireplace. Unless the power goes out. Then I’d rather have a fireplace. Anyway, almost as soon as I turned on the microwave, there was that unmistakable “sshhhuup” sound and then the subsequent lack of lights. Thankfully, it was morning when this happened. We figured it was simply a tripped breaker, as that’s usually the case, especially if we run the microwave with the space heater on. But this time, the space heater was not on. Gasp!! Richard even went outside and checked the breakers. None of them had tripped (?or flipped). I peeked outside but couldn’t tell if the neighbors had lost power. “Did we pay the bill?, Richard asked. “Yeah,” I said. Richard didn’t think too much of it. He hurried out the door to work.

I texted my neighbor Ashley across the street. She hadn’t lost power. I called Dominion Energy to report the outage at my home. I carried on with my morning – went for a run and did some exercises in the garage. Ashley stopped by, announcing her arrival with her idiosyncratic “Hey, girl,” and recommended that maybe I double check the breakers because at her house sometimes they flip (or ?trip) and they don’t really appear to have. We walked around to the side of the house. I flipped open the rusty lid of the breaker box. Ashley looked it over and confirmed that it didn’t look like anything had tripped. She told me she’s too scared to ever flip the “Main” switch. If she was scared to flip the “Main switch,” I deduced that was something. Ashley’s probably not afraid of much – she’s had three children all within six years and raises them – while her husband is deployed for 9 months out of the year. And, she goes to school. She probably knows way more about electrical stuff than I do. So, we simply looked over the box as I held up the lid, the top and largest switch labeled “MAIN” in black letters, like it was conspicuously taunting us.

About an hour later, a human (“Shelby”) called me from Dominion. Strangely, it sounded like someone in the background was giving her prompts on what to say. I figured maybe she was an employee in training or pulled from her other usual duties to a new department, and so someone was showing her the ropes. I must be on speaker phone, I thought. This is always a little blow to my ego – whenever I have to talk through mechanics or even IT stuff, let alone electrical boxes. I might as well have put my dog on the phone.

I explained to Shelby what was going on. One of her first questions was if I had a stand-alone power box (or something to that affect). “Uhh, yeah?” I assumed she was referring to the box on the side of the house that Ashley and I had previously looked at. It sits alone in a sense but there’s also a circular case thing beside it. Don’t ask me what it does. She asked if I’d flipped the breakers already. I told her no, because my husband had already checked them and none of them were tripped. “Flip the breakers,” I heard a soft voice other than Shelby’s say. Then Shelby said, “Flip the breakers.” “Do I flip the ‘Main’ breaker too?,” I asked timidly, remembering what Ashley had told me earlier. I was a little afraid of getting electrocuted. I didn’t have time for that, I needed to be at work in an hour. She told me to flip the “Main” breaker after flipping all the others. I did as she said. Still, when I went inside, there was no power. She said she’d send out someone to check the voltage but if that was good, we’d need an electrician to assess things. I saw dollar signs in my head. Anyway, I thanked Shelby for her help and headed off to work, powerless.

A few times during my busy day at work, the thought entered my mind – I hope we have power when we get home. When I returned home from work that night, sun setting and cold, I pulled up to a dark house. Richard was home and my brother’s truck was out front. I knew that meant there were some issues. Dominion had left a sign on the front door saying that the voltage was good. I took that as a good thing, despite my limited knowledge of residential electricity. My brother and husband were crawling around beneath the house in the dark. Billy (our Golden retriever) was confused. Thankfully, my brother and husband know a thing or two about electricity. The men were able to get an outlet in the living room and kitchen working, so we had heat, refrigeration, and a few lights. Thankfully, we had hot water too. And a microwave. Richard used an extension cord across our living room to hook up the router so we could have internet access. For dinner, I ran to Moe’s. We all ate our burritos in semi-darkness.

Here I sit two days later. Richard just came in from crawling around under the house for the past 8 hours (on a Saturday!). He had to turn off all the power to the house for a brief time while he was working. It’s back on now – so we have heat, hot water, a microwave, fridge, and internet again. He said it’s still not clear what the actual issue is.

I have to say, being without power makes me realize how much I depend on it. In the two hour time span I’ve been without the internet during this escapade, I’ve noticed how often I use the internet – to look up words or even do work stuff on the computer. I walk into rooms and flip the light switch expecting a culmination of years of study, knowledge, skill, experimentation and not to mention – of lots of different people throughout the course of history – to suddenly materialize at my fingertips with the flip of a switch. Presently, in my state of powerlessness, I must rely on a flashlight or motion-activated light (relocated from outside) to be my guide. Also, my i-phone has a flashlight. Thankfully, I can charge it in one of our two functioning outlets. My coffee pot still brewed a mix of Maxwell House breakfast blend and Starbucks dark roast this morning – Richard and I like the result of our mixed coffee preferences. I can bake, use the microwave, or cook any of the foods in my fridge/freezer. I can take a hot bath tonight beside the candlelight. I’ll sleep in my warm bed, with heat.

I have nothing to complain about. There’s so many people in the world who will never experience any of these marvels, sadly. I am grateful to the people who developed electricity and clean water and i-phones. And I’m thankful to those who pick coffee beans and make candles and bathtubs. I’m thankful to Shelby. And my neighbor Ashley, who was kind enough to text me last night and offer to provide anything I needed. I’m thankful to all the people who work for Dominion Energy, who keep the power going. And thanks to the farmers and deli works, drivers, fruit pickers, pilots, shelf stockers, and store clerks who helped bring me the food that’s in my fridge right now. I’m grateful to the those who made my burrito when I couldn’t cook the other night. I’m grateful to the people who made the parts for my truck and the assembly line workers who put it together so that I can get to and from my house to work and to the grocery store. I’m grateful to the guys at Firestone that put the tires on and to the many efforts that got the gasoline into my truck so I can drive it.

Although my knowledge of electricity and farming, technology, and candle-making and vehicle maintenance is lacking (to say the least), I hope that somehow even if in the smallest of ways, I can play a part in this grand play of human interaction and life. I hope I can offer something – via my profession as an advanced practice nurse or by means of simply being a good neighbor or by being a grateful customer – to help make this world go round and to make life better for someone. Because there’s so many who have (and still do!) make it so good for me. It’s tragic that I don’t often realize that until I’m forced to go without one of the  products or services they provide. Shame on me. So though I may be semi-powerless in one sense, this recent adventure has empowered me to be thankful for what I do have and to those who supply it. I’m also inspired by them to be better in my trade (nursing) – so I can make the world better for someone else, both now and for the generations to come.