Argh, Part Two. Last night, on a very hot night, a transformer exploded and my neighborhood plunged into extreme darkness. No street lights, no moon, no stars. First problem was, I sleep in a powered chair and I was stuck! I had to climb to the top of the slope and it started tipping over and I fell back and had to climb again. My breathing was labored because of the heat. Eventually, I found a flashlight and got dressed. No phone service, again, so I found my phone list and keys and headed for the car to find a working phone and call the power company. I was greeted in the back yard (now, I'm rural and only expect deer) by a man with a flashlight who called out "Alabama Power, don't shoot." He was looking for the power box in my yard that governs eight or ten houses. So, till 3:00 am his truck was running on my drive with the headlights pointed at that power box. He told me he expected to still be here "in the morning." I haven't checked the condition of refrigerator and freezers yet and know I have lots of clocks and screens to reset, but what glorious sleep I had once the house was again air conditioned. Hey! I'm ready for some normal. It makes you appreciative.

Glad all is back on and you didn't hurt yourself getting out of the chair.
I feel for the Power man if he has to call out don't shoot while doing his job getting power back to people. Thank goodness here in Australia he wouldn't be saying "don't shoot" it would be "Is your Dog tied up I don't want to get bitten"

I am glad you and your food is OK. I keep several flashlights throughout my house. I probably would not be able to find them in darkness!

That would be scary Betsey. I''m glad you finally got your air conditioning going, nothing worse than sleeping in the heat. Whilst you are sweltering over there, we have finally had rain after weeks of none.
I heard on the radio today that Sydney has Grade 1 water restrictions - under the restrictions, Sydney residents can water lawns and gardens by a hand held hose before 10 am or after 4 pm, as long as their hose is fitted with a trigger nozzle, but can't hose down any hard surfaces, or use sprinklers. We live 2 hours north of Sydney and we don't have any water restrictions, but we are water wise.
I hope your Power man is o.k. too it must have been a shock for him seeing some light in the total darkness. I was amazed by his comment of "Don't shoot" - us Aussies don't usually have firearms. Love Chris

3 comments

by graceandham 01 Jun 2019

No firearms for me; however, there is a lot of hunting in this area - deer, duck, dove, wild turkeys, wild hogs, what have you. People even have deer cameras set up in the woods so they can study the grazing patterns and -- just watch the deer they love. My nephew says one of these days he's going to stop carrying his gun when he hunts deer.

by meganne 04 Jun 2019

Hey Betsey, Chris may have missed your question so I hope you don't mind me answering for her.

Residential areas here don't have any wildlife as such, spiders and some snakes but snakes aren't to be found everywhere.
Rural areas might have kangaroos, wallabies, dingoes, snakes, camels, crocodiles, Emus, possums, lots of spiders, but it all depends in which part of Australia they live.
There have been rumours about cougars or similar, in some mountain areas, but nothing confirmed that I know of.
Remembering, of course, that Australia is larger than the United States, so many regions are still unexplored.

I live alongside a river and have wild ducks, a Pelican, Eastern Water Dragons (quite small and harmless), possums and the occasional snake that may come to visit.
We don't have bears or mountain lions or deer, or moose or buffalo or many of the large animals found roaming free in the US.
Hope this is helpful, huge hugs, Meg

by meganne 04 Jun 2019

Oh there are wild hogs and wild turkeys too but not as many Aussie men hunt like American men do.

I'm with you Betsey, I too sleep in my power chair often. My power went out and left me hi and dry once in the night. Took me quite a while to wiggle out without damaging the back more but I managed. Dark ,no street lights or any lights outside in the rural areas. You have to feel your way around in the house so always keep flashlights on top of the fridge. Gets scary , phones do not work and no cell phone service inside. Have to walk around outside 'till you find a signal. Anyway glad you had a friendly power person and not all alone.

1 comment

by graceandham 01 Jun 2019

Good to see your smiling face. How's the knee, etc. doing?

Glad that you are alright & the power was off for a short time.
In Jan 2018 the power was off in our short street for 26hrs but every thing in our fridge & freezer was alright .Considering it was in the high 30Cs both days & we did open them to get food out.The freezer blocks for the esky were still frozen

We depend so much upon electric power! Hubby has a power chair--it has a battery back-up for power outages. Check with the chair's manufacturer or sales center to identify if a back-up is available. If not, you may want to invest in a power pack (mainly used for computers) so the next time the power grid fails in your area you can safely retract your chair to avoid injury. Stay safe!

It happens. We experienced an outage that I thought would require evacuation this past winter. The first on that scale. It is definitely a bit unnerving. So glad you "weathered" the experience well. Lol - my attempt at humor. Your post did not say it was weather related, however usually it is. I believe it is true... critters are louder in the night, even if they aren't.

1 comment

by graceandham 31 May 2019

The power gentleman thought it was related to a car accident.

Oh my! I'm glad you are OK, but what a difficult night you have had. Thank goodness for the man from AL Power. I'm glad he got you up and running as quickly as he did. I hope you haven't lost any food.

1 comment

by graceandham 31 May 2019

Freezers okay.

Wow, what a night, Betsey...glad it ended and you did get some sleep!