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The first day without power is an adventure, the second an annoyance, and the third a tragedy. Day three is where the ice has melted in the fridge and freezer and where one wants either something hot or cold. My suffering was slight. I had gone to camp for years and could go a long period without most amenities. On top of this, I had friends who had offered their spare and not spare space to me. I had cell access and with a 4G network and tetherable phone had faster web access than most people do at home.

After work I faced the grim task of throwing out a lot of food. Don’t buy fresh meats and vegetables before a storm. I also changed the kitty litter, used the remaining water pressure to get Max water, and packed what I could into a cooler to bring to my mother’s. I had brought my desktop and a 30″ panel and worked on photos until 1am or so. Even through storms my desktop + a card table is the pinnacle of on-the-go computing.

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SEPTA was shut down today and I needed to find a way to get to work to grab my laptop so after helping a friend food shop, I continued on to Market Street across from City Hall at around 8:30am. The roads were empty and I was able to park on the street by Samsom and 16th Street. On street parking on a week day during work hours. I went to my building, rode a dark elevator to my office floor, checked my voice mail, grabbed my laptop and returned to my car. The GPS told me that it’d be 30 minutes to make the 26 mile trip home and this may be the only time that estimation of getting from Philly to Feasterville would be accurate.

Heading north the roads had few cars on them which somehow made them feel more deserted than if I were alone. The other cars served as reminders of what there should have been more of. Southbound traffic was backed up for miles going into the city. It was like Philly had been featured in an episode of The Walking Dead.

At home, I got my laptop set up, connected to the company VPN and began work. I was working from home, an impossibility in my previous life doing lab work. I started a few items in the oven to try to have food to ride out the inevitable power outage and finished two cheesecakes. I put four pounds of chicken in the sous vide rig and set it to 140ºF. Even if power gave out on that, thermal inertia would take the poultry to completion.

The power went out around 5pm near the end of my remote work day and with no ability reasonably work, process photos, or run cleaning equipment I finally felt freed up to revisit something I used to do: sleep.

Thank you, Sandy.