Book Reviews and Writing Tips

Book Reviews and Writing Tips

Monday, June 4, 2012

Could YOU Live With NO Power?

Picture from Neal McLain – Utility Pole Google search page


This is a bit off topic, but I had to ponder this issue today and wondered how you would deal with it.



The reason I contemplated this today was because our power was out for most of the day. That is not a comfortable thing to experience in the summertime when you live in the desert, but as a woman there is always plenty that needs to be done at any given time so I found something to occupy myself until the power was restored.


My husband, on the other hand, had a hard time dealing with this as he is constantly on the internet or watching TV. Since he’s retired that is the daily life he’s chosen. Because of this, not thirty minutes had gone by and, he was pacing the floor. He finally went to visit a friend. There has to be constant noise in his life – 24/7, so as a result we have something blaring away around here all the time, be it internet videos, TV, or the radio, or a combination of these. I’m driven crazy by this, but I try to tune it out to the best of my ability and escape to the peace and quiet of upstairs whenever I can.


Anyway, this power outage got me to thinking just how much we depend on electricity these days. Frankly, I don’t know how we would live without the internet and it’s how I do my freelance work everyday. I use Word to write my books and stories, if I’m not on the internet, so a computer would be hard to live without. What a marvelous piece of technology it is.


I don’t watch that much TV, but now and then I try to relax and watch a good mystery or some senseless sitcom you don’t have to think about. Usually I’m reading a book, or writing, or attempting to catch up on email.


When you have the hot summers we have here in the desert, I wonder how I could survive without A/C too. The fans don’t even work when the power is out. Of course we never had A/C when I was a kid growing up in south Texas. I often wonder how we even survived when I look back at those times now. We had the old “box fan” and that went non-stop during the summer. For those of you who do not know, it is very humid in Texas. Many days it would reach near 100 and the humidity would be 98%. We always had sweat running down our back and beading up on our face. Maybe someday I’ll write more about those times.


We have all become so spoiled to modern conveniences. I definitely appreciate them, but, if it came down to it, I’m sure if I had to I could manage without because, after all, what did our ancestors do? The internet would be hard to give up though.


I welcome your thoughts on this.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have all become spoiled...
Yes, we have. So spoiled to the amenities of modern life, in fact, that we often forget that our ancestors survived without them for quite some time. How else would we be here?
You are right. We take power too much for granted.
I remember something interesting from my childhood. We would have terrible storms and we'd lose our power.
I recall loving it when there was no power. No lights, nothing, just the candles that my mother would put up. I remember being disappointed when the power came back on. I loved the dark and was happy living in it. Now that I am older, while I can still appreciate the dark, I enjoy my power!
If for some reason there was a global power outage, yes, the entire world would panic like they do in movies. And yes, I'd be in my room relishing the lack of light.
Many of us don't know a good thing until it's gone. Myself included. So, I say, power isn't everything but knowledge is power.

Donna Jean McDunn said...

Hi, Sunni I'm Donna and I just found your blogs. I think they are great. I love them. You are very gifted when it comes to writing, but I'm sure you already know that. I just wanted to say so in case no one has ever said it. I'd ask you to follow my blog, but compared to your's I'm an amateur. I've only started a couple of months ago.

Sunni said...

Hi Murasaki,

Thanks for stopping by to read my post and for typing a comment.

Yes, I'm sure the world would go crazy if there was a global power outage. I think this should be in the back of all our minds due to the world we live in today when you never know what may happen down the road. As adults, we should all be prepared the best we can to survive without these things for a time if we have to.

Kids see everything as an adventure. Many times when disaster would strike on the farm as I was growing up, all of kids relished in it while the adults were in panic mode.

I do agree that knowledge is power. We could all probably do without some of the modern conveniences we have, for awhile at least, if we were prepared with food and water and the necessities of life.

Sunni said...

Donna,

Thank you for your very sweet comments and for stopping by to read and leave a comment. It is appreciated.

I wish you would have posted your blog link but I'll go to the thread and see if I can find it.

You must never underestimate yourself. We all started as amateurs and I still see myself that way. Every writer you meet will always be in different stages of the writing process. I think as long as you are posting on real subjects and from the heart with things that others may be interested in, you'll do fine.

Whatever you do, keep writing and reading because it only makes you better, not only as a writer but also with knowledge of the subjects you've read along the way.