For hours this morning, starting at, oh, 3am or so, the power has been fluctuating at my house. I know this because every time it goes out then comes back on, there’s a sound which makes it seem like more than an invisible flow of electrons — it actually seems like a huge force suddenly entering the house, followed by the whirring, buzzing, humming, beeping, and chiming of all the electronics here. Plus, the cell phone here next to my bed makes a chime when it’s plugged in.
Finally, about 5:40am or so, the power winked out again for a few seconds, then as it came back, BOOM! A blinding white light filled my bedroom windows, and all the whirring and chiming suddenly stopped in its tracks. Yup, that was it, and the neighborhood stayed dark.
In less than 10 minutes, Virginia Power arrived at the pole outside my house, where they’re now working on a small transformer or something.
Now, a power outage is not that big of a deal, nor is it unusual. But here’s the thing. Every single time there is some kind of outage, every few months or so, Virginia Power shows up at that same pole to fix that same transformer. Do you think it’s time they replaced it completely?
Oh, and now, at 5:57am, the fire department showed up. And now it’s 5:58, and the power just came on. Wow – the guys from Virginia Power got here well before the fire department AND restored the power! Amazing! Gee, for all the drama, the flashes of brilliant light and the explosive noises, they must have just pressed a “reset” button or something.
Pity. The house was so quiet for a little while.
