One of the favorite pasttimes around here is raging against Pepco, the major utility company.
Apparently, power goes out quite a bit, and takes a long tie to get back up and running.
I had my first experience of this last week. For no apparent reason that I could see, the power went off about 7:30 p.m. I had candles ready from the week before when our lights flickered during a storm but never went out, although lots of people around us lost power. So I lit the candles, read for a bit and then watched a video on my laptop while wrapped in blankets in a quickly cooling apartment. Just as I was going to bed, the lights — and heat — came back on.
My landlord upstairs said she heard a big “pop” and assumed something happened to a transformer down the road. But we didn’t hear anything else.
Then while I was away this weekend the power went out again. The neighborhood email listserve was abuzz with worries about another transformer “explosion.” One woman down the street says she saw sparks flying from the wires of a pole right near her house.
I’m not yet sure exactly went wrong. But I’m learning not to keep too many perishables in the freezer, as I’ve heard stories already of people having to throw out many dollars worth of groceries that went bad in refrigerators and freezers without power for days.
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