A word about something that happenned just yesterday, a power outage that blocked out power in the entire area. All the homes, restaurants, everything. From roughly eleven o'clock in the morning to some areas, and finally by 12:30 the entire area was out of power. Until five thirty last night, when it finally come back on. I had gone out trying to find out if anybody knew anything, as even our phone was out. Luckily, saomebody cleaning a store parking lot told me that the power would be back on at 6:30-if we were lucky. Right about that time, I ran into a woman out awalking with her kids, trying to find something to eat. She had just called, and was told the power would be back on about 7:30. I felt somewhat better, so I tried to go to the store to buy some balogna, being told bythe girl in the lot I could get it if I had the exact change. Butthen the manager said everything was covered up. It was pitch black in tere, so I just said to hell with it and went on back home. I kept my clothes on, including a winter vest and coat, and crawled under the covers. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon, and was about 29 degrees.
Finally, the power came back on, at about 5:30. The disaster was over, including worries over the potential disaster that worried me more than anything else-the prospect of a refrigerator full of spoiled food.
The girl in the store parking lot had told me that a transformer had blown at the main power station, but other than that I really didn't know anything. But I figured that this had been coming for quite some time, as for the last couple of months it seemed that the heat had to be turned up higher than usual before it would even come on, and stay on. But I found out just today, that evidently it wasn't a problem that had been building up after all. In fact, it may have been a problem, that, with jut the slightest bit of precaution, could have been totally prevented.
The cause of the problem, the reason the main transormer had blown, leaving the entire town without power for five hours or more?
A squirrel had gotten into the power station and into the transformer, shorting it out. Doubtless this small, unfortunate, and seeminly insignificant animal never knew what hit it. But everybody around here sure felt the effects. Kind of ironic, when you stop to think about it.
