We’ve just got our power back! However we had to wait almost 48 hours because of the almost hurricane-like winds that hit Los Angeles on Wednesday evening – and we were just 3 of 25,000 people who had their power cut. Although extremely annoying, I have to say that this little spate without any power, had a silver lining for my family.
We are lucky enough to have a fireplace in our living room, which is powered by gas. This was a huge help as, despite it not giving off a lot of heat, it gave off some, especially if we huddled near it, which we needed to as the nights are getting pretty nippy here. So crowded around the fireplace with only some beeswax candles for light (mercifully I made a ton of them last year for Holiday gifts and had some left over), we put on socks and extra sweaters and actually looked at each other! The first night of the outage, we spent a good couple of hours as a family, just chatting to each other about all kinds of things that we don’t normally have time to.
The next day my husband and I both admitted to each other that it had been one of the most relaxing evenings we’d spent in a while, except for, of course, being on vacation. The reason why it was actually pleasurable was because none of us were distracted – there was no TV, no phones or computers (had to save energy for emergencies) and without an iPhone, Face Book, TV blaring and phone ringing – there’s that wonderfully precious thing that most of us don’t allow ourselves anymore – Peace.
In the silence between our conversations, we heard the crackling of the fire and the winds outside. Even the dogs were happier as they got more undivided attention – actually we all got more undivided attention. When the TV’s on, or we’re on our computers, we don’t give anyone our full attention – we don’t really listen anymore, because to listen to someone, you need to see them and feel what is going on behind their words. We all crave attention, and listening is the greatest gift we can give anyone, yet so much of modern technology is robbing us of the ability to give the very thing that we all hunger for.
My husband had to go away so my daughter and I spent another evening by the fire – I got out my knitting basket and re-visited the black 
angora sweater that my husband was supposed to get last year for Christmas! We just hung out drinking hot cocoa and chatting. Given the fact that as parents, our days are always numbered with our kids, it was an evening so well spent because the TV hadn’t taken her away from me. I had a glorious bath by candlelight and we snuggled up together in bed to keep warm, and allowed both the snoring dogs to join us – which is normally taboo.
I spent much of the next day sadly having to throw away a lot of food, which had thawed out too much to be re-frozen and I went to a friend to borrow a huge cooler so I could keep things like milk and butter in the house. The crazy thing about the weather here, is that it heats up enough in the day to spoil your food, and then gets cold enough at night to be unpleasant with no heating. Having just got home after an extended search around town for some battery operated lights, out of habit I pressed my garage clicker and to my surprise it OPENED- PHEW! I could actually open my garage and drive my car in, something that suddenly seemed like a wonderful luxury.
Walking back into my home, everything powered by electricity seemed super-wonderful, and I just wish I could keep this not-taking-it-for-granted feeling all year long. I spoke to my husband and we decided that we’d pick one night every week, where we’d power everything down – no phones, texts, TV, computers – no NOTHING. I’m honestly not sure how long this will last as one of us will have an “emergency” at work that we have to deal with I’m sure, but it won’t be through lack of trying. I will keep you posted on our progress..
