it was a dark and starry night
1:19 p.m. - 08.15.03
Last night's blackout was actually pretty fun, surreal and a little spooky, but fun. a lot happened last night that made the blackout most memorable.
At first i didn't know what was going on. I just left my therapist near downtown cleveland and everything was fine. I headed west (about a 15 minute drive) to see my friend 'Bob' who just came in from manhattan to visit family and friends. here's the account:
4 p.m. got out of my therapists appointment - on my way to west to pick up bob. by the time i got into the neighborhood i noticed some traffic lights weren't working. didn't think much of it since the city's power went out for an hour or so last month. i just happened to take the tape out of my cassette deck and noticed that the radio stations weren't working - a little strange, but didn't think much about it.
4:15 - got to bob's uncle's place. knocking on the door like crazy - door open - no one there. finally, bob comes -(he was downstairs with his uncle checking fuses) as soon as i came in the neighbors told us that power was out on the whole east coast. for a second i just assumed that they got the regiion wrong - i thought they meant that the northcoast, what we clevlelanders refer to our place along lake erie. then bob's uncle started naming off the states/cities affected - cleveland, detroit, conneticut, new york --- of course there was a few minutes where we thought it was terrorism. at the same time we see neighbors coming out of their houses talking to eachother on driveway aprons - just what happened??????
4:25 - bob and i decide to keep our plans to go for a drink. we start driving towards the bar. listening to the AM news station, we hear about the gridlock in downtown, and we see it coming our way on madison. by the time we get to the cafe, traffic is impossible. we thought it was best to keep our wits about ourselves, and head back to uncle george and aunt marys.
traffic was impossible during rush hour - every intersection became a 4-way stop. cops were on many main intersections. however, there was one busy intersection with a frail, skinny old lady - had to be in her 80's - standing in the middle of the street with white gloves and a house coat. it was amazing, she took it upon herself to help traffic. some people weren't listening to her, and driving past her even when her hand was up. that was sad. someothers were honking and smiling and waving to her. i thought it was pretty brave and selfless of her to do that. about 2 corners away was a firestation. there were about 5 firemen sitting on chairs doing nothing. Now that i look back on it, i should have drove up to the fire house to let them know that an old lady was directing traffic. i should have done that.
We waited until about 7 to head east and make the best of things. he heard that the feast in little italy was STILL going on, despite the power outage. i have friends that work at one of the restaurants, and knew some other friends would be there as well.
Only a few restaurants were open, actually only the restaurants with a private parking lot, so they could still sell beer. one place had a huge tent and was bright with generators, and packed with people drinking. the place we went to was beautifully illuminated with candles. my friend who was working there said that they had all this food prepared, so they were happy that they could still be open - they had vats of pasta and sauce.
the feast wasn't as crowded as it would usually be if there was power, but there was a significant crowd walking around. the owner of the restaurant - an older italian guy - said that it seemed for once like a real traditional italian festival - the way it used to be.
everyone was walking around looking up at the stars. since we live in a larger city, we hardly see any stars. last night the sky was powdered with them - it was tryly beautiful. lots of people sat outside their homes and it was like a huge block party. everyone was talking with everyone else. a true sense of community in blackness.
on the way home i saw a pizza/rib place that set up grills on the sidewalk. there must have been 50 people crowded around. Driving was wierd. i'm used to driving in blizzards, but not in the dark. if i was a country girl and used to driving on dark country roads it might have been different, but it was wierd driving on streets where i couldn't even see landmarks.
Crime was amazingly low last night. as of now our water is still all messed up. if it does come on, it's rusty orange and wierd noises come out of the sink. all of our water plants shut down in the middle of the night last night - now there is raw sewage in lake erie and the river. the beaches are closed today.
the mayor said we can still expect the power to go out again today, since they are conducting rolling blackouts, so who knows what else is going to happen.
we also heard that detroit won't get power until maybe sunday - damn!!!! i feel for them. our power came on around 4 in the morning.
also, power did come on in a few suburbs around 11 last night. they said on the radio that the gas stations in those areas were swamped.
i'm going out soon to fill up my tank.
it was a dark and starry night - 08.15.03
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