Power outages aren't that uncommon of an occurrence. In the most extreme cases, when the lights go out in a section of town, we wait half an hour or so, and the power pops back on -- with every electronic device that has a clock flashing a reminder that it needs to be reset. Tonight's power outage was different. Apparently caused by a wildfire in neighboring Monterey County, this outage plunged the entire county of San Benito into darkness, from what I could tell. It was a surreal scene. In my nearly 30 years of living in Hollister, I have never seen the entire town fall into darkness like this. Families on my street gathered outside as the sun fell. It was sort of a step back in time before there were televisions and computers and other such distractions. In my house, candles and flashlights illuminated our living room during homework time. When we realized that our sons and I were really hungry and we had no way to prepare food, I had the bright idea to drive to Gilroy for some Panda Express. The ride also gave my boys a chance to finish their homework by the inside light of the car. Nearly every business that had been open when the power went out had to close. A few traffic signals remained on, but the streetlights were out, making for hazardous driving conditions. As we pulled out of town and headed north on Highway 25, the view to the south over town was something I thought I'd never see. The only lights were the headlights of people either heading home from work or heading out to see if the rest of town was in the same predicament. After eating dinner in Gilroy we noticed the lights in Hollister pop back on, once again throwing off the familiar glow in our valley. The outage was inconvenient, but also an interesting occurrence. My kids thought it was cool and the four of us spent a nice night together, not staring at a television, but having a nice talk and dinner together in the car. In the end, the blackout was an illuminating reminder of how my family brightens my life. (photo courtesy of Crystl's Photostream at http://www.flickr.com/people/crystalflickr/)
Thursday, August 27, 2009
The night the lights went out in San Benito
Power outages aren't that uncommon of an occurrence. In the most extreme cases, when the lights go out in a section of town, we wait half an hour or so, and the power pops back on -- with every electronic device that has a clock flashing a reminder that it needs to be reset. Tonight's power outage was different. Apparently caused by a wildfire in neighboring Monterey County, this outage plunged the entire county of San Benito into darkness, from what I could tell. It was a surreal scene. In my nearly 30 years of living in Hollister, I have never seen the entire town fall into darkness like this. Families on my street gathered outside as the sun fell. It was sort of a step back in time before there were televisions and computers and other such distractions. In my house, candles and flashlights illuminated our living room during homework time. When we realized that our sons and I were really hungry and we had no way to prepare food, I had the bright idea to drive to Gilroy for some Panda Express. The ride also gave my boys a chance to finish their homework by the inside light of the car. Nearly every business that had been open when the power went out had to close. A few traffic signals remained on, but the streetlights were out, making for hazardous driving conditions. As we pulled out of town and headed north on Highway 25, the view to the south over town was something I thought I'd never see. The only lights were the headlights of people either heading home from work or heading out to see if the rest of town was in the same predicament. After eating dinner in Gilroy we noticed the lights in Hollister pop back on, once again throwing off the familiar glow in our valley. The outage was inconvenient, but also an interesting occurrence. My kids thought it was cool and the four of us spent a nice night together, not staring at a television, but having a nice talk and dinner together in the car. In the end, the blackout was an illuminating reminder of how my family brightens my life. (photo courtesy of Crystl's Photostream at http://www.flickr.com/people/crystalflickr/)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Nice reminder of what is important in life. The idea of a regular night with no lights, no computer, no tv, no email, blogging, Blackberry etc. is very compelling. Your postings keep me in touch with my much-missed hometown, although living here in Morro Bay has its perks also
ReplyDeleteI was at work in Gilroy that night, and my mom called me twice to tell me about the outage. The third time she called, the power was back on, right before I was getting to leave work for the night. I was glad I didn't need to go get some matches or a flashlight before I headed home that night. When I got home I had another problem, however--my water pressure was low then and still when I got up for work in the morning.
ReplyDelete