NO POWER

So you may or may not already know that we're suffering a blackout. I say "we" even though the power in my neighbourhood has been on since sometime in the middle of last night because my friend who literally lives one main intersection up the street (a 10 minute walk) still doesn't have any power.

It went off sometime after 4:00 pm yesterday. At first I thought it was just a brownout. We've got a bit of a heatwave going on and since we had our air-conditioner running I figured everyone else probably did as well. However then we turned on our one radio that takes batteries (and only gets am stations), and discovered it was a bit more than that. It turns out the power went down all along the east coast. The U.S and CANADA governments are in a battle over who's to blame.

Basically we spent the rest of the day and late into the night out on the deck listening to people talk shit on talk radio. I took some photos and watered my plants. I also managed to do a bit of non-electricity dependant work.

The radio was hilarious. After only 20 minutes people were freaking out about "the chaos". There were scores of warnings about the dangers of going out into the streets after dark in case violence ensues. One woman was trying to save $50,000 worth of meat. They kept doing little featurettes warning that in four more hours all meat and eggs would be rotten. A woman in Thornhill was talking about how insane it was up there. "People are outside of their houses.... on the street!"

And speaking of people being on the street... our neighbourhood was rockin. We were discussing how they should institute one blackout day a month because it created such a nice feeling in the area. Everyone was outside having fun and hanging out. Mr. Risk likened it to that episode of The Simpsons when violence was removed from cartoons and all the children of Springfield turned off their TVs, opened their doors, rubbed their eyes and went outside to play. The streets and parks were just overflowing with moving bodies. People who hadn't walked in years were begrungingly forced into it because there was no transportation.

I walked around the area a bit once it got dark and all the bars and some corner stores were open, lit by candle light. People were walking the streets with beers in hand, fireworks were set off and several yahoos were wooping it up. I kept waiting for the lights to flicker on and everyone to be caught in their sin. Ha!

From our deck we had a gorgeous view of the sky. The moon was glowing red and we could see more stars and constellations then I ever though possible in Toronto. My one major complaint was the plumes of diesel smoke coming out of the Bay Street area. Most of the tall buildings had more than half their lights on. It's disgusting that our air was being nauseously polluted in order to keep the fucking Bank of Montreal logo illuminated.

I learned a few things from the blackout. 1. Must keep some money on hand because when the power goes out, you can't get cash. 2. Flicking on a switch when entering a bathroom is frighteningly habitual.

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The interview game is still going. See it here.