It Could Be You

I am always seeing earthquake and fire drills being spoken about on TV and somehow never pay too much attention. That stuff happens to other people, right?

Well, that's the point... you just never know.

This weekend I came downstairs.All the fur kids were snoozing and didn't raise a whisker as I padded into the kitchen to make coffee. It was eerily silent and then I noticed that the pet fountain wasn't bubbling.

Before even looking at the kettle,I picked up the fountain and assumed it was clogged with hair and needed to be cleaned out. So I set to work,  rinsed it out, pulled the  motor  apart to service it, put in a new filter and reassembled it. I  plugged it in  again only to realize  the reason it wasn't working  in the first place was because we had a power failure!

 I went to the fridge to get water out of the filter tap -- nothing -- not working because there was no electricity!

Fortunately, my husband is more cognizant about earthquake  preparedness and we in fact do have a cupboard with supplies and that's where  I headed for bottled water because  our  normal supply of bottles was also finished.

As I stood outside boiling a pot of water on the BBQ  so I could finally have coffee and, later, cooking breakfast and lunch outside , the penny dropped about how important it is to be prepared for anything that throws our everyday world out of sync -- like the lack of electricity!

Well, I do have carriers at the ready for the fur kids along with harnesses and leashes , exrtra food and  bowls. But after this little episode I have made a note to complete our  emergency kit with things like bottle and can openers. After all, its all very well have the cans but they are useless if they are not self-opening! 

I did find some flameless candles which were safe to leave glowing when we went out later in the day.

It's a day later and still no electricity and no real explanation from Edison as to why. There is obviously a melt down happening insidethe freezer section!!!  (That will be another story). Iam typing this in my husband's  office in order to keep on top of my work schedule.

We are so reliant on electricity to run our lives especially as far as computers are concerned that this has been quite a reality check.

It made me realize that what happens to "other people"  could happen to each and every one of us.

It certainly caught me off guard.