There I was, watching a livestream of one of my friends play Slay the Spire, chatting with them and another buddy, running my space heater, admiring the beautiful new Christmas lights I'd just placed around my room--when it all stopped. My entire apartment--and the next few blocks down--went dark.
The last time there was a power outage was sometime during the summer, and while that has its own concerns--quick-spoiling food, no air conditioning or fans, etc.--a Chicago winter without power can be deadly to some. Weather can go down to -10s, and if your place has little insulation, you're probably running the heat constantly, like I am.
My immediate first thought was every apocalypse movie where electricity is one of the first things to go. (Since Bird Box was the most recent one, I imagined having to go years without seeing, and running away from aliens and insane people.) Without the help of even streetlamps, I rummaged through a donation box and found a mini flashlight I knew I'd thrown in. That's when I remembered that the reason I was donating it was because it required new AAA batteries, and of course, I was fresh out. (What uses AAAs anymore?) Thankfully, I had a backup torch, but it really got me thinking--what do I really have in case of emergencies? I have a pen light, a mini flashlight, a mini flashlight without batteries, a key chain flashlight without a watch battery, and one scented candle. And let me tell ya, after burning that candle for a good thirty minutes, I thought I'd smell like that $40 candle musk forever. (I know what you're thinking, and that $40 candle was a gift!) All this is not to mention that had the blackout gone on for longer, my food would spoil and I'd have no heaters to keep my apartment from freezing over.
So, I decided that next time I run into a Dollar Tree or my local grocer, I need to pick up some spare things:
cheap, tall unscented candles
matches and a new lighter
hand- and feetwarmers
small pack of AA batteries for flashlights
a larger flashlight that I can keep in the apartment
It's also smart to have an external battery pack for your phone--and keep it charged. I have one small enough for my purse that will get my phone back from 0-100 in about as much time as it would take via wall outlet.
After all this thinking (and about forty-five minutes), the power came back. I'm glad my neighborhood didn't have to endure a cold, lightless night, and that the power outage was brief enough to just remind me how to prepare for a worse one.