Power Cut

[poliphilo]

The power went off last night and stayed off until around three this afternoon.  I kept thinking "I'll have a shower now" or "I'll  watch some TV" or "I'll shred some papers to pass the time" and then realising that all these things were impossible. 

What I did do was finish Rose Macaulay's Dangerous Ages. It's another of her novels from the 1920s- and all about how frustrating it is to be a human being. I'd say she was depressed when she wrote it.

And now I'm catching up on all the cups of tea I missed earlier.

Comments

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

perhaps she was undulating? She had undulating fever, which i think is what we now call glandular fever, and used to write "I'm undulating again."

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Whatever the cause, I found it a mildly depressing book. For all its incidental humour, it's steeped in a sense of the futility of human existence.

We should have held onto "undulating fever". It's a lovely turn of phrase.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Diversity in power sources is good, and devices that aren't dependent on power is even better. We have electricity but our heat and hot water is gas, so we can still cook and enjoy warm baths when the electricity goes out. We have backup for the Really Important Things. There's a small butane stove, a hand-cranked radio cum flashlight, cum cell phone charger, and -- most important -- and hand-powered coffee grinder. No jars of Nescafe for us, thankyouverymuch.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We seem to have put all our eggs into one basket. If the electricity goes off, we lose everything. A butane stove might be a good investment. But at least we have a huge stockpile of candles.