Yesterday the power went out for several hours...

[Carol]

...along with the Internet. It was late afternoon and I was thinking how much of our life revolves around the electricity working. In our house when the power goes out the water pump stops pumping water from the catchment tank to the house. This means no water to wash, flush toilets, shower, the phones don't work, etc.

Although we have water available there is a new situation to deal with with the power cut off. As it was almost dinner time then there was the question, now what? What to fix and how. We do have a bar-b-que, but what about tea or hot water?

Then it was getting dark and I did have my emergency light ready but the candles had been put away and I thought about how nice something brighter would be just to read a book.

It's amazing how different all of our lives would be without electricity. Even preparing as we have in one sense we really are not prepared to change our life style. We enjoy flushing toilets, hot water (I did get a solar shower), unspoiled food in the fridge and light.

I think one of these weekends we should really just turn off the power and try to spend a few days without to test out how we can make do and what we really need to have on hand to make it through. By the way, Progresso soup came to mind really quick along with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.