We're made out of blood and rust.

Every night for the past week or so we have had a power failure. Sometimes I sleep through them and just wake up to the telltale evidence of digital clocks flashing the wrong time. Sometimes I am woken when I notice the sudden absence of sound as the fans stop whirring. I assume the power failures have something to do with the electrical storms we've been having, but perhaps they're more directly related to the construction in the neighbourhood and tearing up of the roadway a few blocks over.

Today's power failure took place later, around 8:30am after I was already awake and out of bed. Really, a power failure when you're sleeping anyway isn't much of an inconvenience, other than the endless resetting of the clocks. But a power failure when you are awake and trying to DO things is difficult.

It's astonishing, when I really take notice of it, how dependent I am on electricity and for how many things. I have been making plans to buy a little battery powered alarm clock to make sure I don't miss my flight on Friday morning, and while trying to get my day started today without power it suddenly occurred to me that if the power is out on Friday morning, waking up is only one small issue that will have been handled. There's the whole matter of showering in the dark, trying to dry my hair without power, applying makeup while unable to see, finding and putting on clothing, gathering necessary papers for the interview, finding my car keys, being unable to turn on the coffee maker, having to open the garage door manually in the dark while avoiding getting chain grease on my interview clothes, and so on and so forth. It all makes me afraid to go to sleep at all. I wonder if I should get showered and dressed the night before and sleep standing up by the back door. Or better still, maybe I ought to sleep in the car in the driveway.

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