ice cream - half price
The power went out just after 4. We had a bit of a brown out as warning, so I managed to save my work before everything shut down. A group of us congregated in open areas and chatted before uptimately deciding that we might as well go home.
Traffic was a mess, even for my short drive home. This probably had more to do with construction-related road closures and everybody trying to get out at once than the stop lights being out. That certainly wasn't helping, though. I had to get around a couple smashed up cars before I made it out of there.
I'd found out at work from people phoning family that the lights were out from London to Toronto to Peterborough. The radio said Windsor to Ottawa to New York. When I got out of the car, the old lady who lives next door saw me and yelled down "My power's out!" like I could do something about it.
The power's out everywhere," I said. "The radio said as far as New York."
"Oh my, it's happened again. It's gotta be those terrorists."
I shrugged. "I don't know if I trust them, but that's what they said. We'll see, I guess."
I phoned home. My mom was, of course, worried, but was glad that everyone had reported in safe. I reassured her that I wasn't going out driving again tonight.
I went for a walk, instead.
The fire alarm in the building was making sure everybody knew it didn't have power. It was driving me insane and I had to get out. I also had a vague notion that 'd head over to Radio Shack at the mall and see if they'd sell me one of those wind-up radios. I was running my radio off my cheap UPS, but it was beeping. Its beeping wasn't nearly as annoying as the fire alarm, but it wasn't helping either. So I turned it off. When I tried to turn it back on again, it sounded three beeps but didn't turn on. I'm sure the engineer who designed it considered this a feature. I'm also sure he's an idiot.
I didn't think anything would be open, but I figured it was worthwhile finding out. I only had $25 in cash anyway. I suppose, then, that it was just as well everything was closed.
I thought I'd stop by the convenience store and paybe pick up some ice. It was past 9, so I suppose they could be forgiven for being closed. They had a sign on the door, written in magic marker on cardboard: ICE CREAM—HALF PRICE.
By the time I'd gotten back home, the fire alarm (and emergency lighting) were dead and impromptu block parties had broken out. Somebody even had fireworks.
I never thought I'd be able to see the Milky Way from my balcony.
I did a bit of stargazing. Before the just-past-full moon rose, it was absolutely breath-taking. The moonrise itself, with Mars nearby, was pretty special too.
I lit a couple candles and one of my oil lamps and played Lunar Legends on the GBA for a while. John phoned around 11 and let me know how he was getting along. He'd left a message that a bunch of people were getting together for a barbecue or something, but it's probably too late now.
I'm writing this with a pen in my old journal from university. It seemed the most appropriate place to tell the story. The party is winding down outside and I think it's probably time for bed. I'm still planning on going to work tomorrow, even if the power's still out. Maybe I'll bring a book.