...is the result of a noise Michael and I heard early this morning. It sounded like a car crash just outside of our house. But it was early in the morning. We were in bed. We couldn't be arsed to go check it out.
Some time later, I rolled over and looked at the clock and thought, oh damn, the power's out. The normally bright face of the digital alarm was blank. I tried to only doze from then on out so I could make sure we woke at a decent hour and Michael wasn't late for class. My watch was on the floor by the bed. I would check the time in a little bit. Just a little bit. In a few minutes. Just a few more minutes...
And then the alarm went off. I looked over and the face was still blank, which made me realize that it was not the face which was turned toward me. I was staring at the side or back of the alarm. As Michael got up to turn the alarm off, I told him I had thought the power was out, but now I realized the alarm was just turned around.
As I woke up a bit more, and squinted my bad vision a bit more toward the alarm, I realized that it *was* facing toward me, and the face *was* blank. Huh. I came up with all manner of reasons for this in my foggy state. None of them included,
"Yeah, the power's out."
Michael had ventured forth, unsuccessfully, to make coffee. The coffee maker refused to turn on. And the lights.
"But the alarm went off."
"It's got a battery back-up."
(Really, that whole portion of the story is there solely because I think it's so neat that our alarm has a battery back-up -- so that even when the power is out, even when you can't see what time it is, you will still wake up on time. This alarm clock cost, like, $15 and I think it is the nicest alarm clock I have ever owned. I am now officially in love with it. The really interesting potion of the story begins now.)
I climbed out of bed and started opening the front windows to get some air through the house. I got as far as the first one before I ran back to find Michael.
"I figured out why the power is out!"
Just outside of our house (even closer to us than the geyser was), a pole carrying electrical lines had snapped in half. Snapped in half about 30 feet up. The top, with all the wires still attached, was just hanging there cockeyed from the splintered break. The base appeared to be undamaged.
I later heard that a car had smashed into it. For three years there had been bracers on the already weakening pole, but the impact apparently caused enough shock to splinter the wood.
So I had a peach, my morning coffee, some breakfast, all while watching the crew stabilize the wires, cut the pole into pieces, and then erect a new one. It was fascinating. I got some nice pictures. I'll put them up after I get 'em developed.
...
Other exciting news is that I have done my first bit of data-collecting as a Community Psychologist. It's not official research; just a class project. But I'm looking at it as my practice round of data collection. I'm doing the project on Safe Haven, which is a transitional housing shelter for mentally ill homeless individuals. I had a great time talking to the director today, getting the tour, the hot skinny on the place. I'm going back next week to meet with the second-in-command, and I'll stick around a bit for "Monday Night Football", which actually happens in the afternoon. Over the next month or so I'll go back and talk to different people and try to get a holistic view of how the place operates. Then I'll put together a report and presentation for class in December.
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