What a start to the week we’ve had here. A massive storm stalled over Pittsburgh Sunday and dropped upwards of 3 inches of rain in about 15 minutes. For the first time in my life, I got to see big chunks of golf-ball-sized hail fall. You’ve probably all experienced the sound of hail falling. It never occurred to me — though I acknowledge that it makes perfect sense — the bigger the hail, the higher your heart rate gets as the hail hits your 125-year-old windows.
Our street became the Colorado River rushing between canyon walls. I have no idea how fast it was going but I wouldn’t want to get knocked off my feet in that deluge as it raced down the hill toward the big open sewers at the bottom of our street.
Everyone in my little community lost power at about 6:30 Sunday evening, right in the middle of the storm. Losing power is a rare event in the city. We have a great — deeply underappreciated IMO — electrical grid that is almost never out. Unfortunately, the storm was actually enormous, with high windows and torrential rains that got the best of the grid — bringing down trees, blowing transformers and ultimately knocking out power for tens of thousands. We were literally powerless for a little over 21 hours.
As soon as we realized that the power was not going to blink right back on, I began to think ruefully of that box of no-longer-charged external batteries that my husband used to keep charged in case of emergencies. I was also reminded of them by my loving children several times throughout those long dark hours that “Dad always kept those batteries charged.” Yeah, I know. I miss him, too. I also know that, when next I see Ken, I’m going to get an earful about those damn batteries.
Sadly, warm weather and equipment age/inefficiency combined at our house to cause The Great Defrosting, an event that will be retold and elaborated for future generations. We opened the fridge and freezers after the power returned, you know, to evaluate the situation: Melona bars (a treat for the ages) liquid. An entire half gallon of vanilla ice cream (good-bye dreamed of sundaes and banana splits) poured down the drain. I could go on but tears are obscuring my view of the screen.
In truth, we lost a lot of food and hours of work time, but we’re very lucky. We were safe and dry. We don’t rely on electricity to power oxygen pumps or dialysis equipment or a baby monitor. We can afford to replace the food we lost. We work for ourselves so we didn’t have wages docked or lose our jobs because the power was out. Not everyone was so fortunate.
On the humorous side of the whole experience, I was the guinea pig for food spoilage. “Mom, can you taste this for me?” was the common refrain once the power was back on. You’ve really never experienced the extraordinary power of your taste buds until you have been given a generously sized block of spoiled feta cheese, which you put — in its entirety — in your mouth because you are so confident that “it’s fine.” Wow. It’s … well, it’s hard to describe the taste, kind of bitter and vinegary and just really awful. It was decidedly not “fine.”
But we are.
Today is, thankfully, garbage day. We’ll be cleaning out the spoilage and taking the opportunity to assess and reconsider before we stock up again. It’s sad work to throw away food that could, in a different story, have been a community banquet. Maybe, in fact, we don’t need a chest freezer stocked with food. Maybe it’s time to develop some new habits.
Be well. Be safe. Be kind.
Oh, and unclench that jaw.
Much love.
