I’m digging into a new pile of files, looking for things not necessarily to toss but to comment on. Also, things that have baffled me as to where to file them. Case in point:

Some years ago I had a conversation with two of my favourite champagne companions—over champagne, of course. We were discussing the various sizes of champagne bottles, most of which we had never drunk, at least not by title though perhaps on occasion a similar amount, still far below the outer reaches of possible (?) consumption. My host left us to check Google and found an item listing the sizes, titles and amounts of our dear libation. He wrote the list in pencil and I took it home and copied it and printed it out but I never knew where to put it. It showed up today and I still don’t know where to file it so i offer it to you.

Huitième 1/8 bottle 9.4 cl. 1 small glass

Quart 1/4 bottle 18,75 cl. 2 small glasses [This is also called a split by some. I call it a piccolo—the size sold in a three-pack—two flutes, perfect with ripe blackberries tossed in, better than kir royale.)

Demi-bouteille 1/2 bottle 3.75 cl. 3 glasses

Bouteille 1 bottle 75 cl. 6 glasses

Maagnum 2 bottles 150 cl. 12 glasses (You can tell this is big-it was my/our limit.)

Jeroboam (King of Israel in 9th century B.C.)

4 bottles 3 litres 24 glasses

Rehoboam (Son of Solomon and King of Israel in 10th century B.C).

6 bottles 4.5 litres 36 glasses

Methuselah (Named after the biblical patriarch who lived 969 ans, without any Champagne.)

8 bottles 6 litres 48 glasses

Salmanazar (Named after an Assyrian king that lived in the 9th century B.C.)

12 bottles 9 litres 72 glasses

Balthazar (Named after a regent of Babylon, living in the 6th century B.C.)

16 bottles 12 litres 96 glasses

Nebuchadnezzar (The king of Babylon who lived in the 6th century B.C.)

20 bottles 15 litres 120 glasses

Maybe I’ll put the list in my liquor cabinet.

Big power outage in Toronto this morning, covering a large area. it started about 3 a.m., I am told; I discovered it at 4 when I woke. We were given bulletins about the progress all day. It was expected to be repaired by 9:30 a.m., then by 12, then by 2, then by 4, and then by 6:30. I was just beginning to examine my Instant Pot Manual to figure out how to cook Kraft Dinner (!) in it when the lights came on at 5:03 p.m. My son Matt was thus enabled to go on with his cooking lessons, cooking KD from scratch.

It was a long hard, draggy day. You don’t realize how dependent you are on the wire until you are deprived of it. Electricity, as Marshall McLuhan pointed out, is information. I guess fire is everything else., including KD. Well, draggy because I didn’t swim in the morning. I assumed the elevator wasn’t working (It was) and I didn’t want to swim outside in the dark (at 6 in the morning there are lights around the pool because it’s still quite dark by that time.) So without my morning swim to tweak me alive, i dragged.

I won’t go on. This is supposed to be a blog—whatever that is—not a whiny journal entry. i do try to be detached, but some days are less detached than others.

I enjoyed outages more when I lived up north (in Muskoka). I had a fireplace with andirons fitted with an attached grill for cooking over the fire, kerosene lamps and candles. By the time the power came back on I was so comfortable and having such a good time, I didn’t bother turning on anything until the morning.

It’s not as easy in the city.