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.