Outdoor Adventures

[ksquared]

As I type... the NYC stations are off the air.

They were on earlier in the evening. Wonder if their generators gave out or if they needed to shut down in an effort to keep the circuits from overloading when the power comes back.

Memories.

'66... Dad picking me up from confirmation class... no radio going in the car. He explained that there was a blackout. No broadcasts coming from Manhattan... Cold War... Were the Russians behind it.

1977(?)... evening out with one of my boyfriends... restaurant on 2nd Avenue in the 70s... street side window table sharing a bottle of Mouton Cadet. Whack... black. He wanted to leave without paying the check. I wouldn't let him. Caught a cab cross town... a minor miracle. No emergency power in my building. I lived on the 4th floor. We got upstairs by taking turns lighting matches for light. Not sure how he made it out of the building and back to Long Island where he was living.

I stayed in for about 24 hours until the power came back on. I hadn't defrosted the refrigerator in too long. Frost fell and covered the meat. It stayed frozen solid. Phone rang off the hook next day. Friends and family from across the river hearing reports of riots in Harlem... was I okay... YO folks... I am nowhere near Harlem... midtown... heart of Manhattan "civilization." The phone and a battery operated transistor radio... my only connections to the outside world aside from looking out the window.

We were lucky in that our building was short enough so that there was no water tank. The buildings that relied on tanks ran out of water because there was no way to pump it up there. Manhattan's water source is at an elevation that is just higher than 6 stories... any building that is higher than that is required to have a water tank on the roof for water pressure. Our building was actually 6-1/2 stories high... Ground floor was a half level down from the street and numbered L... the second story was 1 and so on. I was really on the 5th floor. Think that is how they got away without have a water tank.

Tonight: Getting ready to head out of work a little after 4:00. The power started to fade in and out then came back. We laughed about it. We had trouble with a transformer earlier this week... I just finished packing up and got out. No NYC rock 'n roll radio station in the car... emergency vehicles starting to fly along the roads. Uh oh.

Tuned to the jersey stations... word of a "massive power failure" no where details. Street lights flashing yellow... no red and green... same when I got to my town (one light)... hmmmm.

Figured if the power was out, I was spared from mowing... who knows when I'd be able to take a shower again. Walked in. Answering machine light was on... threw a switch. Lights on... Cool. A/C on... we're in business.

Those poor people in Manhattan... at rush hour. Ouch. My heart goes out to those trapped in the subway in this heat. Descent into hell.

Sure glad I am safe and sound in the hills of nj.

counting.ksquared.blessings