What I learned from Hurricane Ike

Being without power for over 1 week (projected return: Sunday @ midnight) wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have nagging commitments. School is the big one here. The pace of the modern lifestyle, when you're working full time and going to school full time, doesn't allow for much flexibility with the ebb and flow of Mother Nature. Fortunately, school and work have also experienced some down time, so we're somewhat in sync there.

The last of my cow and pig was finished off by this power outage. Luckily, there was only a bunch of liver, heart, tongue, and kidney left. A few decent cuts got thrown out, but virtually all that was left were these organs, which just weren't moving through my kitchen at a fast rate at all. I probably squandered all the carbon benefits by buying this organic, pasture-raised meat in bulk by having to throw it out, but it was still great for my health as well as the welfare of the animals.

If I were more on top of things, I would have just distributed the meat around the neighborhood. My poor grilling techniques and the actual cuts remaining made me squeamish about offering it to others. Imagine knocking on the door of neighbors you've never met, saying, "Here's some fresh grilled liver! Yep, all 5 lbs of it!" Who's really going to cook up soup bones on a portable Coleman stove?

If you study the Bible or other ancient peoples, scholars are quick to educate you how much these people were keenly aware of the cycles of the moon, even building structures to predict it. Students today have a hard time understanding this, seeing it as some ultra-primitive mindset, almost like a nature religion, something that we just cannot understand. It is actually not that hard: Spend a few days without power, and it would be actually more amazing if you weren't aware of the role of moon! Walking around at night with a full moon is worlds apart from pitch blackness.

In the olden days, candle making wasn't just some cutesy little craft. It was a matter of survival. Lanterns work so much better by keeping the light out of your eyes and projecting forward.

I've met more neighbors than ever. The next door neighbor and I pulled down a tree that was suspended among some branches. We shared equipment. We talked to some others over the backyard fence. Nice.

I really like the quiet of a city without electricity. It reminds me of growing up in the country. You can't read much at night, but there's not a whole lot of other loss. Families tend to stay together around a firelight, playing games, telling stories, doing what people have been doing for countless centuries before the rise of modern technology which has done more to break these most natural rhythms than anything else.

It is definitely an adjustment to realize that when the sun goes down so does most of your activity. We have clearly forgotten this. Without power, it is really dark at night. A few candles can keep you from bumping your head, but they won't help you do much else. As the sun goes down, what's not done is going to be left undone until the morning. That's all that there is to it.