...not the neurological kind of blackouts, or those brought on by excess...the kind that come when a small village hundreds of miles from nowhere relies upon its own generators for electrical power. We are most definitely not on the grid here. In fact, we can likely be best described as perhaps thousands of miles from the grid as it exists in the Lower 48. Our grid is miniature and consists of the village of Napaskiak. Period. We are not even connected to Bethel, as there are no bridges or anything of the sort that could support repair vehicles until the river is frozen.
After the craziness of the junior high tournament, we went home to catch a few z's. A nap was most necessary after all of those hours of running around getting stuff for people to eat and drink. After that, we got up and began to prepare for the dinner that we were planning to host at 7:30 that evening. There were dishes to wash, and food to prepare. Not a whole lot had gotten done when the power went out. No problem, I could still wash dishes, and there were three hours to go before guests were to arrive.
The short version of this is that the power was not on at 7:30. Not at 8, or 8:30...my wife called our guests and said that we would have to cancel. I was very disappointed. I had not really gotten to celebrate my birthday because of the necessity of our volunteering for the seniors. Now, I was not going to get the rain check because of the complexities of living out here. Bummer...
We sat for a little while in the dark as it descended, but abandoned that for the hallway, where there are safety lights, and we could see. On top of that, it was beginning to get cold in the apartments. The neighbors were already out there with their newborn, concerned for her comfort. We opened the door to the adjacent furnace room, which let some more heat out into the hallway. Things began to evolve into the direction of a hall party. My wife hand-whipped the frosting for my birthday cake, and we pulled out a cooler to act as an impromptu table.
It was at that point, at about 9:30 in the evening, that the lights came back on. We had already been told that they were not likely to for the rest of the night, and maybe not the next day. Once we convinced ourselves that they were on for a while, we decided to make pizza and ice cream and have a proper little party after all. The whole thing took a while to set up, as it was all being made from scratch, but we got the heat going, and had pizza, carrot cake, and homemade strawberry ice cream by 11 pm. A truly memorable birthday after all...
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