A wild wind whipped its way through our neighborhood, sending animatronic monster décor spinning into a short-out in the streets. That happened about midnight on Friday evening. By 8 a.m. Saturday morning, the power was still out, but that didn’t stop me from sounding the craft alert.
It was just starting to be daylight, but still dark enough that I needed a flashlight to find the crafting supplies in the closet. However, the only other flashlight in the house at the time was trapped in the bathroom with Nate. So, I just felt around the closet in the dark for the following supplies:
–Dried fall leaves. (I thought they would be in a plastic baggie, but they were all loosey-goosey in a drawer. Not good planning on my part.)
–Paper.
–More paper.
To add a challenge or twist to the craft alert, I grabbed square shapes of paper and guessed what colors they were before taking them to the window to verify. Fortunately, I was right about the color most of the time and didn’t have to make too many trips back to the closet.
The craft part didn’t take much time at all. I just arranged the leaves in a circle on one sheet of paper. Then, on another sheet, I arranged folded triangles of paper in fall colors. Then, I glued everything into place. I call the resulting masterpieces: “Two Interpretations of Fall.”
In any case, I think the triangles are desperately pointing to a way out—or maybe a hidden extra flashlight. Perhaps they’re a sign to get more matches and candles—or another craft alarm that’s rigged with a back-up generator and a Bat-Signal, so they can go berserk during the next storm. That would set precisely the right mood to kick things into high gear and just knock the wind out of crafting.
Update: Power is back on—after nearly 10 ½ hours!
Your Turn: When the electricity goes out, how do you spend your time?
Fixin' Leaks and Leeks 
Yikes, 10.5 hours! If it were me, I would hope at least 8 of those hours were spent sleeping.
Fun craft. 🙂
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I tried to sleep, but I couldn’t. Crafting helped pass the time.
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Good call.
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I read when our power goes out. (We have enough alternative light sources.)
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Reading was also on my list. Once the lights went back on though, there were soooo many things to do. But I did still manage to get some reading in later on.
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If it’s daytime I’ll take the dog out for a long hike in the woods somewhere. Nighttime I try to come up with enough candle power to read and then go to bed early and hope I’m awaken by all the lights coming on.
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Hiking’s a great idea! Reading was also on my list of things to do after crafting. I finally did get to read, though–after the lights came back on.
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When the power goes out, I hit the streets. And sell flashlights door-to-door. Then A half hour later I go back along the same route and sell them the batteries
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That’s a great idea! I might hit the streets and sell my crafts. In the dark, they won’t be able to see if they’re good or not–and what better thing would they be doing at that moment?
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The power went out at my place on Friday afternoon while I was in a video meeting. Fortunately, 4G and batteries kept me going. The power returned eventually so I could cook dinner. I have enough power bricks around to keep my smartphone going if the outages are extended.
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That’s a great idea! We will definitely be buying more flashlights and batteries.
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I like the idea of those solar panel battery rechargers so you have an almost perpetual supply of battery power.
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Wow, that was out for a long time! When this has happened to me in the past I tended to read and snack…and worry:)
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It was a long time–and I did worry. I think we’ll maybe save up for a generator. There are people in our county–actually LOTS of people in our county who didn’t get their power restored until nearly 48 hours later–and they don’t live in a rural area.
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Loss of power affects so many things!
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That’s a long time! I am back in the subarctic, and here it’s critical to keep the power going because of how cold it can get. There are big-time alternate generators, so outages are quite short.
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That was longest we’ve been without power in the Greater Seattle area–I am thinking about getting a back-up generator.
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A few years ago, during a power outage, my wife and I played Scrabble, by candlelight. It was kind of romantic.
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That’s so sweet–I love it!
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I admit in NYC we don’t lose power often…things are underground. When we lose power it’s apocalyptic…
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That’s awesome! We live in the Greater Seattle area in a pretty well-developed suburban community with lots of shops, hospitals, doctors’ offices, malls, grocery stores, etc., so I was really not expecting the power outages, but any wind knocks the power out because they won’t bury the lines!
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Where I grew up in suburban Long Island it was like that…trees
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Yikes! We had really strong winds here too, but luckily, didn’t lose any power. After the last time, when our power was out for almost two days, I broke down and bought a generator under the theory that it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it!
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I’m definitely thinking about investing in a back-up generator.
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It’s really worth it.
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I would sleep! But that’s pretty impressive craft work for something done in the dark 🙂
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Thank you! It was fun to do.
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Oh my God, 10 hours! I could get crazy! What about the weather there? Here in Italy we are liing a neverending summer … Anyway, good idea yours, to do during free time 🙂
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There are some people in my area that didn’t get their power back for nearly 48 hours, and we live in a fairly big city–so it was really strange. We typically get a lot of rain. Sometimes snow, but not too much. Summer is never really that hot, either.
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You’re the best – for us – the power outage started aroung 10 PM and lasted 14 hours. It was a very cold, chilly night. Stay creative. 🙂 Many people here in our area still do not have power – and it’s been since Friday a week ago. Some parts of Camano Island still don’t have power.
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We were lucky to have our power restored. Lots of people at work didn’t have power at their homes, but our employer let families come in and warm up and use the showers at the gym. That was quite the storm.
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Yes it was. It’s amazing that a storm of that nature did so much damage to so many people. Between King and Snohomish County- over 250,000 people lost power.
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