{"id":9831,"date":"2010-07-24T04:51:44","date_gmt":"2010-07-24T09:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/?p=9831"},"modified":"2010-07-24T04:51:44","modified_gmt":"2010-07-24T09:51:44","slug":"the-power-goes-out-at-the-end-of-a-busy-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/the-power-goes-out-at-the-end-of-a-busy-day\/","title":{"rendered":"The power goes out at the end of a busy day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Yesterday was one of my busy days.\u00a0 The August issue of Horizons Magazine<\/a> was delivered, so I spent the morning getting it in the mail.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Bonnie was off the coast, so it was a really windy day.\u00a0 At the loading dock in the downtown Melbourne, FL main post office, carts were rolling and stuff was flying.\u00a0 Even my hair; my hair band broke about 10:00am and I didn’t have a spare with me.\u00a0 By the time I left the post office, I just wanted to go home and relax. I stopped by Walmart on the way home and got some large plastic storage containers – I’ve been organizing my laundry room and pantry area.\u00a0 I also stopped at Publix and got a Caribbean chicken leg quarter for lunch – score!\u00a0 I had lunch and then began putting things in the storage containers.\u00a0 I bought the perfect size to fit all the paper bags, and the perfect size to store my dozens of cleaning cloths.\u00a0 I don’t use paper towels to clean, I keep a couple of dozen old wash cloths handy and use them to clean and wipe up spills.\u00a0 After I use them, I toss into a plastic shoebox next to the dryer and when it’s full I wash them all at once. It’s saved me a fortune in paper towels and there’s no unnecessary paper waste.\u00a0 By 2:00pm, the area was clean and organized, so I took a shower and washed my hair and sat back in the big puffy chair to relax and see if anything good was on tv.\u00a0 Then the power went out.<\/p>\n

The power goes out in Palm Bay, FL <\/a>fairly often, mostly just a flicker or maybe a few minutes.\u00a0 After 15 minutes, I called FPL’s 1-800-4OUTAGE (800-468-8243) just to make sure they got the 3 calls they needed in order to have an outage checked. I love FPL having this call number.\u00a0 The recording told me they had identified an outage in this area affecting 67 people and that power should be restored within 2 hours.<\/p>\n

No power meant no internet access – and also no water since I am on a well.\u00a0 I was glad I’d had my shower.\u00a0 I wandered through the house and opened all the blinds to let the light stream in.\u00a0 I collected all the flashlights and changed the batteries in them.\u00a0 I saw I had two unopened packages of D batteries that were dated March 2006, so I checked the expiration dates on all the batteries.\u00a0 Check here to compare which flashlight batteries last the longest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Before<\/a>

Before organization<\/p><\/div>\n

\"After<\/a>

After organization<\/p><\/div>\n

Having replaced the flashlight batteries and taken inventory of my battery stash,\u00a0 I look around for other things I could do with no power.\u00a0 I’d cleaned the house earlier.\u00a0 My laundry room organization was done.\u00a0 I glanced at my To Do List.\u00a0 If I’d printed out my subscription labels, I could do those, but I’d not yet printed it out.\u00a0 Phooey.\u00a0 It was sprinkling outside, and still pretty warm, so I decided to venture out in the car to deliver magazines.\u00a0 It looked really stormy as I headed north, so I nixxed that idea.\u00a0 I got gas and delivered magazines to my friend Cecelia who lives around the corner from me.\u00a0 We sat and visited for a while.\u00a0 Even though she’s in Bayside too, she had power.<\/p>\n

By the time I got back home, power had been restored.\u00a0 It had only been out about an hour and a half.\u00a0 This had reminded me that I need to keep a list of things to do when the power goes out next time, so I’m prepared.\u00a0 Sometimes I can sleep right through it, like when there’s a hurricane and I can count on the power being out overnight.\u00a0 Overnight in the summer in Florida with windows closed and no a\/c or fan gets muggy quick.\u00a0 In 2004, I lost power for a week each during 2 big storms<\/a>. If I have no power and no internet, I can’t get work done, so I need to get to a place where I can work.\u00a0 And sleep in comfort.\u00a0 Thankfully my good friends put me up each time.<\/p>\n

Now I know to be prepared with plenty of things I can do with no power, like the filing.\u00a0 I think it’s funny that it didn’t occur to me to simply sit and read one of the many books I have here and never seem to make time for.<\/p>\n

Go figure.<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0 I get called onto the scene of the tornado<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>
<\/a><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t