Okay so yesterday afternoon the power went out at my parents'/our house. It did not really seem like a big deal at the time, but as the hours went on and it started to get dark I started thinking about how we would make it through the night without power. As it turns out we are really dependent on electricity and woefully unprepared to live without it. We had a few, poorly working flashlights and our cell phones that would eventually die without power to charge them, but that was about the extent of our supplies. It got warm in the house, but I was counting my blessings that we were here in Oregon and not back in Arizona and we spent much of the evening outside where it was cooler and lighter.
As the evening wore on we decided we needed to get Merrick ready for bed. It was interesting changing a poopy diaper by the light of a flashlight and of course he would pick that moment when his diaper was off and we could hardly see to decide he needed to pee. We also had the challenge of finding batteries for his sound machine which could not be plugged in as usual and the question of whether we brush his teeth in a dark bathroom or let him skip one time.
In the end the Merrick did get to bed and after six hours the lights did turn on, but I was left with a lot of concerns. We are living not too far from a huge volcano and on top of a large fault line. Experts have said that a massive earthquake is LONG overdue here. While I don't have any desire to live in fear I would like to know that if something were to happen, we could be okay. Last night I learned that we have a long way to go. Since we struggled to make it through six hours my confidence in our long term sustainability is shaky at best.
I am not sure where we go from here, but probably some good working flashlights would be a good first step.
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