Powerbreak 1, Summer 2007
Jun. 27th, 2007 02:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adrian_turtleI think the power failed as soon as the temperature went above 90F. It might have been a little later. I was down the street at the laundromat, so I wasn't keeping close track of either time or temperature. The laundromat has no air conditioning, but it has lots of ceiling fans (and it doesn't have incoming waste heat from 5 floors worth of window air conditioners), so it was reasonably comfortable even with 6 or 7 dryers going. I was at the laundromat because they have more effective washing machines than the ones in my building. I wanted to wash the cat fur *out* of my clothes, among other things, and I was afraid the washing machines downstairs (which don't agitate vigorously enough to disperse detergent) would just move it around.
Fortunately, everything was washed and either in a dryer or on my cart, when the power went out. It was inconvenient to take damp clothes home and up 6 flights of stairs. It would have been worse if they were all dripping wet.
Then I realized my cellphone had no charge. If I'd been confident power was going to be restored before I went to bed, I would just have left it alone...but I wanted the phone to serve as an alarm clock in the morning. And to give me the option of talking to the people I talk to all the time (but I don't have their phone numbers in my head. They call me, or I use the contact list in the phone's memory.) This morning, I had recognized the need to charge the phone, and plugged it into an outlet with a wall switch...and failed to turn on the wall switch. Oops. So I took the phone and charger, and walked down Mass Ave in search of a functional power outlet I could use. Arlington Center had power, and Starbucks makes outlets available to their customers. The place was so crowded I had to ease my way through a friendly Stitch 'n' Bitch group to get to an outlet, but they were extremely gracious. They offered to teach me to knit, and invited me to come back next week.
Fortunately, everything was washed and either in a dryer or on my cart, when the power went out. It was inconvenient to take damp clothes home and up 6 flights of stairs. It would have been worse if they were all dripping wet.
Then I realized my cellphone had no charge. If I'd been confident power was going to be restored before I went to bed, I would just have left it alone...but I wanted the phone to serve as an alarm clock in the morning. And to give me the option of talking to the people I talk to all the time (but I don't have their phone numbers in my head. They call me, or I use the contact list in the phone's memory.) This morning, I had recognized the need to charge the phone, and plugged it into an outlet with a wall switch...and failed to turn on the wall switch. Oops. So I took the phone and charger, and walked down Mass Ave in search of a functional power outlet I could use. Arlington Center had power, and Starbucks makes outlets available to their customers. The place was so crowded I had to ease my way through a friendly Stitch 'n' Bitch group to get to an outlet, but they were extremely gracious. They offered to teach me to knit, and invited me to come back next week.
