my flashlight needs new batteries
Living in California, we're told to be prepared with earthquake kits and what not—but I couldn't tell you what's in an earthquake kit and thus don't have one. Bad, bad California-dweller. But one thing I do have is a big ol' takes-a-D-battery flashlight, because the power tends to fail around here, frequently. Well, maybe not "frequently," but "a hell of a lot more than anywhere else I've ever lived." How about six times in the last two months?
I live in a condo complex (not a new one, it's 20 years old), and I don't use a lot of power (my bill is only about $40/mo) and I pay my bill on time, so anytime the power fails I know it's not my fault...and if I look out the back door and see all the other condo groupings are power-lite, and the duck pond isn't gurgling, then I call the power company and report the outage. But sometimes it's just my little condo grouping that's out, which really pisses me off.
But anyway, I have a flashlight. I don't like the pitch black. I sleep with the TV on (in the living room, on the couch, but that's another story) all night. I don't like silence, either (the TV covers this, and if it doesn't, the aquarium or the outside pond does, too). Several weeks ago, the power went out. I grabbed my flashlight, turned it on, and it went dim in minutes. Crap. Went to the store that was open, they had no batteries that size, so I bought a candle. Candles are lovely, but I don't like open flames + cats. Not that my cats would ever light themselves on fire, but it's one of those irrational fears of mine.
I told all this to my buddy, who for Christmas then got me an
Incredibles flashlight that runs on double-A batteries. I keep it on the coffeetable. Last night, the power went out and I got to use my shiny new
Incredibles flashlight. But the power didn't come back right away...well, it did for about 15 minutes, then failed again. This was about 9:30pm, so you're thinking "if the power is going to fail, best it fails at night, right?" Right. Unless you're me.
I spent the next few hours sleeping with my
Incredibles flashlight on, to the point where it wore out the batteries. My fish were all sucking air at the top of their aquarium, my older cats were like "why the fuck it is so quiet and dark?" and running around confused (the baby, who doesn't know any better, kept sleeping). One of them threw up just to make sure I knew he was still there. The other jumped on my chest, presumably for the same purpose, and stayed there for awhile (he's not light). Finally I got up and got the big flashlight and it lasted for several more hours and then finally around 4am the power came back.
Since I had planned to get up at 3am and work, I'm all messed up...and I need more batteries.
