Oh no!
An 'Outage' is actually the Nova Scotian or maybe even Canadian term for 'Power Cut'.
From about 4pm all the lights went out!
Now, when I used to live in Libya, this did happen a few times, and even in England, there was the very rare and odd occassion that this happened. And you might be thinking, 'so you had a power cut - what's the big deal?'
Well, living here, you not only have no electricity when there is a power cut. Our water comes from a well on our property which gets to the house through a water pump powered by electricity. So, when the lights went out, the water stopped. Yes, there was no water in the sink and even worse, the toilets were out of use. Hang on, a correction is needed here, you can use the toilets but you certainly can't flush them! That was not good.
Seeing as it was 4pm when this happened, it made cooking dinner an interesting experience and washing food even more of an interesting experience. Still, somehow by the grace of God, and with a little help from candle light and a little bowl of water, we somehow managed.
We were concerned that if this 'outage' decided to remain a long while, that we would actually lose all the food in our fridge and freezer (that we had only just bought that afternoon). What can I say though, God was gracious! The power came back on for 1/2 an hour in the evening. However, just when we took sigh of relief that it was back, it went out again. Then the same thing happened at about 1am before finally coming back about 4am. Still at least the two 1/2 hour intervals (that it was back) did mean that we didn't lose any food.
So the lesson to be learned is this:
If you ever come to live in Nova Scotia, always make sure you have the following items somewhere at all times:
-candles
-lighters
-flashlights or 'torches' as we say in England
-water
-canned food
So beware the 'Outage'. Apparantly last year, there was a 24 hour long outage and people did lose all their food. I think the word for 'outage' is quite apt here, as one literally can suddenly find themself out of power, out of water, out of food, and out of light too! - Totally surrounded by the dark cold Canadian country night!
2 comments:
But somehow it's exciting and romantic too isn't it?
There are a few parts of Germany (thankfully not my parents!) that have been without electricity for 3 days now, and no end in sight. The heavy, unexpected snow there has brought down the powerlines.
Oh wow - that is bad. I hope they get it back soon - the worse thing is losing all your food - especially if you are poor and can't afford to replace it.
It wasn't snow that brought down our powerlines - it was a really loud howling wind!
:)
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