Monday, July 22, 2013

Waiting For Instructions

"What are you doing?" I asked my oldest girl.
"I'm waiting for instructions" she said back with a scared look in her eyes.

Last night the power went out. Just like I always do when this happens I stepped out on the front porch and
looked around to see how many was out this time. I can see for miles out here and I can even see the nearest town five miles away. Most of the time a glow is on the horizon from all the street lights and the businesses, but this time it was dark.

"The whole town is out of power" I announced to whoever was listening. One daughter was stuck at work and the oldest, along with the wife was at home with me.
I was really dreading this. The hot summer night was just on the other side of the windows and I figured we had just a couple hours before it was in the house. With the whole town out something big must have happen and the wife and I were already in prepper mode.
Without saying a word, we did our assigned tasks then waited.

"This is it isn't it!!!" the girl asked.

"This is what?" I asked back

"The end, it's started"

The wife quickly turned on the police scanner and we sat listening to the hectic rambling coming over the airwaves.
Major power outages and fires all along the highway. Reckless drivers were already out and people were out of their houses and on the move. Police were being dispatched for possible looting and to secure certain areas.

"This is it, OMG" The daughter kept saying.

I looked over at her and she was just standing in the middle of the living room. The flickering glow from the emergency candles lit up only half her face. Even in the dim room I could see she was scared.

With a slight chuckle I asked, "What are you doing?"

"Waiting for instructions!" she said back in almost a military like manner.

I don't know if she was wanting me sound the "Call to arms" signal or what, but all I said was, "Don't open the refrigerator." I think she was a little disappointed.

The power outage only lasted an hour. The fires were put out long before they reached anything important. In just one hour without modern conveniences the town went crazy. I can only imagine what would happen if this was "IT".        

12 comments:

  1. buddy - the small town in quebec where jambaloney is visiting got hit by a freak storm...they lost their power for 2 days. and so did 200,000 other people in the nearby towns and cities. it was crazy!!! there seem to be more and more power outages in north america lately...it makes me wonder.

    bahahahah! i love your instructions on not opening the refrigerator. and hey - don't you owe me an email response???

    your friend,
    kymber

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    1. Kymber,
      I don't know what these people would do if it lasted two days.
      Sorry about the email, I got busy this weekend. One will be on the way shorty.

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  2. MDR - You handled that well :)

    Perhaps your daughter should hold the stock of candles and torch batteries for future "occurrences" - to help her stay focused and not quite so "edgy"? Especially if "it" happens...

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    1. I think just hearing all that was happening on the scanner got her a little scared. Other than that she is a pretty cool headed girl.

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  3. I was watching the TV news this morning and some young guy was getting rescued from a flash flood somewhere, not sure where it was but it was in the US, anyway as the helicopter was lifting him out of the water I noticed that he was on his cell phone. We can't even take the time to put down a device while being rescued! When it happens there will be a lot of people curled up mumbling to their devices to download help.

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    1. I agree SBF, I almost wish those phones were never invented.

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  4. Your daughter sounds like one of mine, actually like 4 out of 5 of mine.....

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    1. LOL, April. She is just about ready for anything. If the cell phones weren't working than I would have been a little scared myself.

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  5. You should probably let your daughter listen in on the scanner some normal night when the power is not out so that she knows that things happen all the time and not to freak out.

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  6. If you're anything like me then the scariest part was the fact that all your family wasn't in one place - with you ! Consider it a dry run and we will all pray that IT is a long time coming. As for your daughter I think she did just great. X

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  7. Thanks X,
    Your right, the youngest was at work and that did bother me due to the fact the fires were near her work and the roads were shut down.
    We got her though.

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