What to Do When the Power Goes Out

“After the Storm, After You are Gone”. Oil on canvas, 16”x12”, January 10, 2024

Instructions:

This is what to do when the power goes out:

Number one rule: make sure your family, friends, and neighbors are ok. If you have family, friends, and neighbors who check in on you, count yourself as blessed.

If it is an anticipated storm, ahead of it make sure you have charged your phone. Make sure you have water stashed in buckets, tubs, gallon jugs, dog dishes and bird cages. You’ll need it. Make sure there is food for the birds outdoors as they will have a rough time too. Do your laundry and dishes. Cook or prepare food for when you can’t use the stove or microwave. If you have a grill, be sure it has propane. Clean the house. I imagine that is what our ancestors called fall and spring cleaning: Fall they knew they were in for the long haul; Spring to muck out their winter survival.

If you have a woodstove, generator, fireplace, and/or a gas stove count yourself as blessed. In anticipation of the expected storm get them prepared: bring in the firewood, pull out the generator away from the house, make sure the pilot works, etc.. If they break or you can't get them started, ask a knowledgeable friend for help. Hope you can return the favor.

When the power goes out, first take a breath, be still. Usually it follows a frightening commotion, often with high winds and deep snow or pelting rains. Sometimes it happens as your husband is dying and has entered his last wordless days and it is high summer and a freak occurrence and you need to be sure he has his morphine every two hours and it is blazing hot and he needs to be kept cool and there is no running water to keep his mouth moist or to keep him clean and the lines are down up and down the street and you've never started the generator before yourself and he can't do it now because he is obviously dying and you can't find the instructions and he can't tell you because he is not conscious and is talking to those who have died before him and its Covid and everyone is wearing masks. You want to panic but can't. He needs you to stay calm. But luckily your sister and daughter are here at the death bed and run down the street and flag down the firemen who first won't help because of legalities but then the fire chief does and you electric run cords through the house and find a fan. But the water pump dies and you need to order a new one from somewhere. And the street closes so no one can get to you but your daughter and sister and his sisters and brother-in-law are here and since no one can leave, you all take off your masks. And you hold on tight.

But wait this is not now. Let those memories go and remember you are a survivor and hold on tight. Breathe in slowly, to a count of five, breathe out slower still. Be still. Be so still. Count your heartbeats. Humanity has lived without power and internet and running water for eons but we’ve always had and lost lovers and children and friends. Losing those is much harder than losing power. Hearts are very strong organs as is love. Everlasting. This storm is not.

And when you are still, take in the silence. It is rather a miracle, isn't it? Do you hear the chickadees calling you? Do the dogs still want to play? It's an excellent time to remember to listen, to recognize we have choice. Now we can hear our most elemental and important choices, not impeded by modernity’s constant buzz and hum. Who am I? How will I face this? What is my next step?

As Viktor Frankl, who lived through the unthinkable, advises us in “Man’s Search for Meaning”,

“Had I known then that my wife was dead, I think that I would still haver given myself, undisturbed by that knowledge, to the contemplation of her image, ad that my mental conversation with her would have been just as vivid and just as satisfying. "Set me like a seal upon thy heart, love is as strong as death."

and 

"But there is also purpose in that life which is barren of both creation and enjoyment and which admits of but one possibility of high moral behavior: namely, in man’s attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces.” 

and 

“It can be said that they were worthy of their sufferings; the way they bore their suffering was a genuine inner achievement. It is this spiritual freedom which cannot be taken away that makes life meaningful and purposeful.” 

Final rules: if someone has given you specific instructions or you have written them yourself in easier gentler times, be grateful. Then after following them, take a walk and perhaps if you are an artist paint or a writer write and be thankful.

Storm damage down the road, January 2024

Specific instructions for our house sitters

Notes for Taking Care of the House and Animals 

Power Outage:

• Most power outages occur after a storm of heavy snow, ice, or tree damage. They usually last less than 8 hours and happen only once or twice a year.
• Life Without Power:
• If the power goes out so will the phone system therefore the cell phone is the only option.
• There are candles everywhere and found under the counter between the kitchen and living room
• Flashlights are above the laundry machine
• DO NOT RUN THE WATER! Water is in gallons down cellar on the shelves. DO not run water or flush toilets if electricity goes out – it will kill the well/pump.
• The garage door can be opened by pulling down on the red handled cord (look up) This releases the automatic opener.
• The fireplace works without power (switch on wall) and gives off a lot of heat.
• The stove burners will need to be lit with a match.
• The Generator:
• There is a generator in the garage by the side door. It’s a little complex so you may not want to start it but if the outage is extended you will. Once it is hooked up and running, it restores power to the furnace, phone system, stove, refrigerator and freezer, well water, and kitchen lights.
• As an overview, the operation consists of pulling it out of the garage, plugging it in, starting it and flipping on the transfer switches in the basement.

1. Remove it from the garage and place in front of the garage side door.
2. It should be filled with gas (red gas can marked GAS) It will operate for about 7 hours on a tank. There is a gauge on the top that indicates the level. To fill it up, make sure that it is not running, open the black cap on the center top of the generator and fill it from the gas container.
3. Plug the cord into the generator (the other end should already be plugged into the side wall on the house).
4. Turn on the power switch
5. Set the choke to full
6. Pull the starting cord
7. Let it run for a minute or so and turn the choke off
8. Go into the basement into the workshop side, there is a door there which leads to a little closet area where all the server/telephone equipment is. Flip all the switches in the transfer switch to the generator setting.
9. Run it for a few hours in the evening. You can use the oven, microwave, toilets, water, shower, and the furnace. Shut it off using the off switch on the generator when you go out or go to sleep. You can restart. 
10. When power returns, flip all the switches in the transfer box back to the line position.

After the Storm, January 2024