Friday morning was occupied mainly with a doctor’s appointment, returning from which we found the house without power. In consequence, things got off to a very delayed start.
There was nothing for it but to get my book and put my feet up, but fatigue overwhelmed me, so I kept losing my place and re-reading the same sentence.
Taking naps during the day is not an option, no matter how tired I may be because I am unable to sleep in daylight and the attempt makes me feel ghastly.
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Going for a walk also not advisable because it was hot and humid that day and without air-conditioning, the house would soon become warm. I can deal with hot weather as long as I have a refuge from it. Without – I wilt, rapidly.
Now, – we have a generator for just this sort of occasion, which we had repaired some time ago. We also had an electrician re-arrange the wiring, but we’d never actually needed to test it out. I decided we should…
Grant got the thing to start easily enough and once he remembered to connect it, power travelled to the house, sufficient to activate – 3 lights, but not the fridge, or the bathrooms. I am told that at least the well pump came to life, which is handy since without it we have no running water. Absent heat, wouldn’t the water freeze in winter?
It was as well to assess the situation, I think, before finding ourselves without power in the middle of a blizzard. For 8 years we have been fortunate to experience only short outages, but the way things are going, I think we need to be prepared.
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Looking at the price of generators, however, perhaps we’ll just stock up on canned food, bottled water and warm blankets.
The old me would have become overwhelmed with worry, but endless fretting only ever gave me stomach ache and pains in the head. It is unlikely anything drastic will befall us, though far too many in this country are not so lucky, which in a wealthy nation I find inexcusable.
But let me not go off on a rant about that!
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Early morning is a good time to be about. A few days ago dawn light caught field thistles down the hill and golden rod which has come into bloom.
Something about those muted colours pleases me.
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Overhead a half moon shone brightly behind a crisscross of contrails.
Who on earth was flying at that early hour? Perhaps it was arrivals from the West Coast. Those poor people on red-eye flights.
The last flight I took was one of those. Grant and I left Seattle on a Saturday evening, carrying with us Muffin and Willow, having launched 11 other cats by road that morning.
It was then we learned that Muffin suffered from motion sickness. She threw up on take-off, the beginning of a long, stressful night, Grant anxious about a sick cat, myself standing up to alleviate pins and needles in my legs.
Earlier, I had been concerned that Willow would break loose when she was taken out of her carrier for security checks, but luckily she was seriously intimidated by the unfamiliar sounds and she cowered in my arms, returning gratefully to the comparative safety of her carrier where she remained so silent I was afraid she had expired.
For Muffin, it was a terrible ordeal as she continued being sick and we had no means of helping her. The only consolation was that I had somehow selected her to travel with us by air rather than in an overland vehicle which would have extended her torment unbearably. The two SUV’s bringing our other 11 cats did not arrive until the Monday morning.
What a relief when they turned up safely!
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It was only on arrival in their new home that some of these cats met for the first time, but they were all accustomed to being part of a group and this was brand new territory for them all, so no one had yet claimed anything. They settled in amazingly quickly and without issue. Perhaps they were just glad to be done travelling and to find themselves reunited with the two people who reguarly provided food!
Willow, Penny and Sophia are missing from this photograph.
Until the last year of her life, Sophia spent most of her days in hiding. Willow prefers space when she eats and it’s possible Penny was up on the counter. She suffered from severe arthritis, so Grant carried her everywhere.
In Washington, for a time we’d had quite a few more cats, the upstairs gang – ours and the downstairs lot, the fosters, also actually ours just then, of course. So we were used to chaos.
Just as well, since now they had to be introduced to their new vet.
Oh – I didn’t mention – two hours after power was restored, it failed again.
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Great photo of the cats scouting out the carpet!
Thank you, Carolyn, for the photos of the sky, your thoughts on outages and the happy cat in their new home!
Joanna
I didn’t realise that a generator doesn’t power the whole house, I always presumed that it replaced the full electricity supply as if there was no power cut. We had a rare power cut last Friday. The power company advised me by text message that it was ‘unintentional’, and by the time I had read that text it came back on. I only had to reset the microwave clock, so it was no big deal, but we were glad to have the fans running again.
Best wishes, Pete.
We’ve recently been without electricity for 5 days (by our own choice while we were wild camping) and with the help of solar panels, batteries, and inverters, we’ve had enough power for our lights, fridges, and electric blanket (of course 😉). We’ll just have to manage without a generator, because diesel is too expensive … sometimes it feels like we’re moving back to the times when our ancestors lived, right? Love that photo of all the cats on the carpet.
I can’t believe it’s been 8 years since we arrived with our little gang. Several were old and/or beginning to fail, but I’m not sure we expected to lose 9 of them quite so soon. I would have them all back despite the chaos. They were all so precious, but we have to be glad for the time we had.
❤️
Good that you should have a generator, however limited.
We have frequent power shortages at the country house.
No generator, but we have lots of candles and old-fashioned paraffin lamps… The grandkids love it.
Shouldn’t your generator also power the fridge and freezer?
A proper one would but the device that came with the house is a Mickey Mouse type of thing. It illuminates a couple of light bulbs and I am told fires up the water pump. It’s all good for a short while but in the depth of winter or a scorching summer not such fun. In Washington once I was without power for 5 days but I did have gas which kept the house warm and I managed perfectly without internet or any of those things. I have a great photo of my mum in Phnom Penh writing a letter by candelight.
The generators I’ve seen are biiig noisy things. I guess you can’t have it all. Best of luck with the power lines…
That sounds like an interesting picture. Have you posted it?
Yes, I believe you may have seen it: https://catsincambridge.net/2024/12/22/a-warm-place/
If I have it will be a pleasure to see it again… Hopping right there.
Yes, I had. Now I remember your mother’s photograph. A very good one.
And that photo of the elephant in the street? We were out there on the street that day. Crossed path.
Perhaps we were at the Cercle Sportif at the same time too! There was a nice restaurant near the Post Office called La Taverne and sometimes we ate at Le Royale. My friend Sabrina and I spent our days together exploring Phnom Penh during a year when I did not go to school and became a street urchin. It was wonderful!
Very likely. There were not that many places where Europeans gathered.
A street urchin in those days must have been amazing. Your parents wouldn’t let you out on the street nowadays…