In the autumn of 2000 I was living hundreds of miles away from . . . well, pretty much EVERYTHING, in a double wide with five other college girls, on the property of the local high school in Monument Valley, Utah. There are stories to be told – nights of flaming soccer, afternoons of Canasta, or the time I accidentally streaked a wedding. But those stories don’t get told here.
The point is this: what are six college girls going to do while living on an indian reservation, three hours away from the nearest Walmart, where the local burgerking (a half hour away) doubled as the local museum (get your fries and culture at the same time!)
There was nothing to do.
So when Emily Elmer suggested we have a pioneer weekend, and not use our electricity AT ALL – it sounded like a great gig. We put tape over all the light switches, and promised ourselves and each other that we would go 48 hours without the modern convienience of electric power.
But it was November, and dark set in early.
So we hunkered down on the couch, watching through the picture window as the moon arched its way across the desert sky. Chips and salsa and good conversation made for a fun enough evening. But eventually we all got tired . . . and bored. And off to bed we went – at 9:00 pm.
The next night the shine of something new had worn off a little bit, and we all asked each other: “Should we just end our no-power weekend early?” But no one wanted to be the voice of reason, shouting YES!
So another night around a single candle, in the dark of our little abode, we talked about friends, our students, art projects, what would happen ifs, and nothing important at all.
And eventually we all went to bed.
And that was when I decided that not having power IS LAME.
I’m all for good conversation: in the light, so I can look people in the eye, and heat up my hot chocolate in the microwave, and maybe have music on, and other brilliant luxuries afforded by the power company.
Four years later I was married, living in THE TINIEST, THE DUMPIEST little apartment you ever did see (well, Beth’s might be smaller) with two Great Danes and one awesome husband. I was at work when the snow started to fall. The news said it was going to be bad, so they sent everyone home early. I drove in my Jeep Grand Cherokee down 7th East in Salt Lake, crawling at 20 miles an hour, as the snow had already accumulated several inches, and cars were strewn about like Calvin’s bedroom floor.
Almost the minute I got home, the power went out. Wyatt was already home from school, and with nothing to do, we conceded to a game of Monopoly (banned unless under extreme circumstances, from our marriage). 24 hours later the power still wasn’t on. We considered driving to Highland, but our car was burried in almost two feet of snow, and it was still coming down.
36 hours later we decided we better put the contents of of our freezer and fridge outside into the snow. I remember we had just received a Christmas ham from my work, and we were so excited for it! Meat was not something our poor student budget afforded us very often. I was worried my ham would be ruined!
48 hours later the snow had stopped. Over 3 feet had accumulated in the valley, a major dump. Still the power was out. We braved the outdoors to dig out the cars. I had to go to work.
72 hours later we were crawling the walls with boredom. We went to the dollar movies, but just after we bought our tickets, but before the movie started, the power went out at the theater. I thought I was going to cry.
The power came back on after about 74 hours.
We were the longest without power in the valley.
And I decided I HATE IT WHEN THE POWER GOES OUT!
That’s why on Sunday, when the power went out, and stayed out for 30 hours, I was a little annoyed when my sister told me I was “lucky” to have a power outage.
Weather Forcast for tonight: BIG STORM.