lc23tina's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The power outage of 2003. I forgot to write about the power outage. Happened a week ago Thursday. I had the kids overnight because of a fight that took place at my sister's. I made the kids something to eat and we were burning a copy of Pooh's print shop for them when my computer suddenly went off. A few seconds later it came back on and then went really dim like it was going to explode, same with all the lights and lamps in the house. Then, there was no power at all. The alarms started to go off in the apartment, everytime the lights go out our security alarm goes off. I woke up John from a dead sleep telling him the power went out and the alarms were going off. The kids were a little freaked out. John went outside to see if anyone else was without power. it seemed like the whole vlock lost it. I just figured someone hit a pole and knocked out a few houses. My Mom and sister came over to get the kids. I told them about losing the power in the apartment. My Mom said that the power was out all across town. Hummm... I called over to my sisters and asked if they had power there, nope. Well, Windsor was out of power. I thought to myself and then said to John "SHIT! we have no money, if all the power is out we can't use our debit card! WE HAVE NO SMOKES!". Then it hit me, if we go into Essex, about 30 mins away from Windsor, we could grab a bite to eat, visit John's Dad, and get money out. We called Essex, but they had no power. It was starting to get a little freaky. We called Amherstburg (1 hour away), they had no power. We called Tilbury (1 hour the other way), no power. My first thought was that Fermy II had exploded and we were all doomed to die this horrible death. Now, about a month ago I was told that I had weak heart walls, which have been causing severe palpataions when I get nervous or excited, or sometimes when I am doing nothing at all. I got a little worried and my heart beat started to sky rocket. GULP! My Mom called me to tell me that Larry (Mom's BF) just got called from his boss in Chatham, it seems that everywhere from Windsor to Ottawa was without power. WHAT??? Then she called again, New York lost power, Michigan, and Ohio. Brad (Larry's Boss) said that he heard from some guy in London that it was a terrorist attack on a power plant and it had exploded. I called my sister to see if she had any money so I could buy some smokes, she needed food, so she lent me money and I brought over food so we could all cook on her BBQ. Trying to find a store that was still open was hell. Finally one by her place was still open when we got there. We heard on the radio on the way over there that the Mohawk Power Grid in Niagra Falls failed and caused this wide spread blackout. We sat for the next three or so hours waiting for power. The updates on the radio said that we could be without power for up to seven days. SEVEN DAYS WITHOUT POWER???? YOU'VE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME! Yeah, I freaked. Barb got a call from her work, they had cancelled their shifts. We heard on the radio that the automakers here in the City were not running. I had John call his work, they were running. Damn generators. Once night came it got really freaky. No streetlights, no prime time tv, no computer, no nothing. Most of the stores were closed, and boredome set in quite quickly. John left for work, Barb, her boyfriend, the kids, some neighbors and Rose all sat in her front lawn with a bomb fire going so we had light. With no air conditioner, it was much cooler outside than inside. Just after midnight firetrcks started roaring by. Now after listening to the radio all night and knowing that fire trucks, amblulances and police cars were only going to be dispacthed if there was a serious emergency. We realised it was a big emergency once we counted the 10th truck fly down the road. We all thought it was a big accident. Since we are rednecked hillbilly's and there was nothing to do that night but wait for the sun or power, whichever came first, we decided to investigate. As we rounded the corner we see a ton of flashing lights and fire. Holy hell was there ever fire. We walked down jusr half a block and we were right in front of this building that was engulfed in flames. It was a very scary sight. There was a man standing on the corner of the street looking at the burning building with his hands in the air saying "there goes all my life". My goodness, it was so incredibly sad. We stayed down there for almost 6 hours while this place burned and burned. We walked back to the house a few times to see the kids and make sure everything was good there. We told the kids the importance of not playing with fire. Just to think that it was all started by a candle because people left it unattended. I must have drove it through the kids a million and one times. I went in the house and called my Mom. I told her about the fire and I busted into tears. I told her to make sure that she blew out all the candles before she went to bed. Just then one of the neighbors kids inside my sisters house was in the room next to me with her fingers running through the flames of the candle. WHOA! I wanted to beat her to a stitch of her life. I yelled at her and told her I was going to tell her Mother, and I did just that. After seeing a place in flames, the people crying in the street, and she didn't catch on. That scared me even more. Don't kids understand? My father scared the hell out of me with fire. I was afraid when my Mom use to turn on the gas stove. He always asked, do you want to burn to death because you played with fire? Do you want your family to die? I wish other kids had a scary father like me. I went back down to the fire, mainly because that was the only place that wasn't dark. I sat there on the ledge of a building with Rose and Cathy. We were checking out the buff firemen too. John ended up finding us down there, he got to go home early because Chryslers shut down and they had no work to do. He drove by our place and we had power, so we got our things and we came home. Barb got power for about three minutes and it went back out until the late morning. My Mom didn't get hers back until mid afternoon. It was weird to say the least. No wonder people way back when had 12 children. There was nothing to do but eat, farm and have sex. 3:47 a.m. - 08.23.03 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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