Disconnected
This morning I was awakened by the violent vibrations and noise of the generator. While I cannot imagine life without this monstrosity, as it supplies enough power to the home that we never flinch at the thought of a power outage, I immediately checked my phone for any notifications on the power company app. Much to my disappointment I saw the alert that we would be without power for ten hours! That certainly woke me from any sleepiness that the generator hadn’t eliminated. Ten hours is the entirety of the day, a day when I was not scheduled to be anywhere but home. Ugh.
Thankfully the weather hasn’t been too bad. The mornings have a cool breeze that runs through the garden. Perfect for lounging on the swing and taking in the freshness of the new day. This new day, however, had something new for us to face. Not the power outage but rather something worse. The generator may have kicked in early in the morning but now it was spewing liquid and dangerously heating up. Definitely not a good sign! We all froze in our thoughts, each one of us mentally going through the list of things that would be affected by the power outage and the possibility of not having the generator to rely on.
Third world countries are called that because we really are ranked low on the quality of life scale. We face so many issues of daily living that the rest of the world cannot imagine. And it starts with the absolute basics. Electricity. Water. Gas. Can you imagine waking up and having to check if you received water through the night? Have you ever had to outline a schedule for being in the kitchen based on the scheduled hours that you will have natural gas available to light your stove? Not to mention load shedding of electricity in order to give power to every area of the city. It baffles my mind how industries succeed to function without the basics. In any case, today’s contemplation will be restricted to how these third world problems affect the household and more specifically my household today.
So, back to the list of things that would not work without power.
The kitchen becomes one of the most useless rooms in the house without power. That means no breakfast and lunch that would require the stove, microwave, toaster or kettle.
Loss of power means the internet router is off. No TV and no access to anything that requires online activity. Thankfully our data package won’t disconnect us completely.
The garden and plants need watering and the pump must stay on or else…
No laundry will get done.
The pressure pump will remain off which means water in the bathrooms will not come with much force.
No chance of cooling yourself down by sitting under the fan or having the AC on.
If clothes require ironing forget it. Your fashion statement of the day will be wrinkled clothes.
Any and all gadgets must be used conservatively since they cannot be charged until the power is restored. In my case, my power bank hasn’t been charged either so cannot rely on that.
All the things that enable us to relax while at home are compromised. Instead I am left racking my brain for solutions to all my problems. Suddenly staying home is stressful and I am trying to find a reason and place to go that justifies getting in my AC’d car and driving away from all these issues. Not to mention I could charge my gadgets in the car.
Running away, rather driving away, is not the answer though. So now I find myself making a list of things that could work. Being disconnected means you are forced to think beyond the usual and obvious choices. So I start to think about all the things I used to brush aside. The kind of things I was simply not doing without justifiable reason. Sitting on the swing in the garden I flipped on my iPad. Ignoring the ticker at the top of the screen that reminded me I was without a WiFi connection, I started browsing through what would work. After a couple of rounds of Zen Words I decided I needed to do something more productive. Something that would get my mind off the sweat I was suddenly aware of. I remembered I had been gifted a Spanish hand fan (the kind Flamenco dancers often use). I quickly abandoned the swing and rushed inside to find the fan. Then I settled back down fanning myself as I browsed my iPad.
I logged into Goodreads, something I hadn’t done in a while. The My Books page not only displayed what I was currently reading but also reminded me of my 2026 Reading Challenge. I am embarrassed to say I am not doing very good as far as my challenge is concerned. By this time last year I had already ready many more books. That’s when I diverted to my list of currently reading books. One of them I was thoroughly enjoying but have no idea why I kept abandoning the book. That’s it. What better way to avoid thinking of the power outage but to get lost in a good book? And so I started reading. Totally losing myself in the story.
Reading a good book is like a blessing. The book had me at 100%. I completely gave myself to the book. I didn’t look up to check in on anyone or anything. For a change I wasn’t available to the rest of the world because I was disconnected. Disconnected from all the noise. In this silence I found my book. The one I was not getting around to. I kept reading only looking up to see how much time had passed and then losing myself in the words again. Before I knew it I had read eighty-five percent of the book. At eighty-five percent books are generally approaching their climax. That means the story has upped its speed and is in a race to the finish. Just when I am excited to find out how it ends, I realize my iPad has discharged and could possibly shut down any minute. Time to drive away.
I get in the car and drive. Selfishly I go where I know I can plug my gadgets in and charge them. This means I take a break while my iPad is charging. My mind however has new focus. It wants only to get to the last page. I wait while my gadgets are charging. After what seems like forever my phone rings. The power is back I am told. I rush to get back home. Once home, I am thankful the fans are back on. The rest of the things that are back to being connected and functional don’t matter. I am still focused on one thing, how the book will end. So I go to the privacy of my room and bury myself into the book once again. I don’t move until the book is finished. It felt so good to log into Goodreads again and update my book status. I Mark as read and get a little thrill at seeing my 2026 Reading Challenge update.
What a day! I survived ten hours without power. I managed to finish my book along with managing that list of mine. Probably the best thing I learned today was that I had lost something and that something was my sense of attention. The power outage forcefully disconnected me. It gave me back my attention. When the power was back my attention remained. I was more interested in isolating myself and finishing my book. All the other stuff could wait. I made it wait. I hope that stays with me. I shouldn’t need a power outage to get a wake-up call. I should be able to disconnect. And when you get your hands on a good book then you realize the world you so desperately want to stay connected to isn’t half as interesting as the world you discover in the book in your hand.