Nationwide Blackout

Today was one of those days I had scheduled down to the minute.  Quick stop at the gym on the way to Spanish class.  Then head straight home to begin the process of baking bread.  Grab a quick lunch with Annika, put her down for an early nap and then get to work on planning out the session's music classes.  Grab a strong coffee to fuel some hard work, so that I can finish it in time to wake Annika early from her nap and head over to the school.  Get there in time to pay for Sophia's swim lessons, put on her sunblock and then watch her swim for an hour before the standard after-school evening rush begins - snack, homework, dinner, showers, stories, lights out promptly at 8pm. 

All went well until lunchtime.  The bread sat rising in its bowl and Annika and I hopped in the car to go out and grab something quick and tasty.  We arrived at the mall down the hill from us and entered the drive-thru (I'll admit - we were craving McDonalds).  No one answered at the drive-thru.  This seemed a little strange, but strange things happen in Venezuela so we parked in the lot and went inside.

Nothing looked right.  Shops were dark and police were wandering.  People sat at tables looking lost.  We walked to McDonalds and tried the door.  It was locked, although people sat eating inside.

It seems that the power had gone out only a few minutes before we arrived.  Folks who had already paid were eating their food, but anyone else would not be served.  Some stores had quickly locked their doors and the mall had drawn down the gates to some sections.  The grocery store seemed to run on a generator.  The mall is open to the air in many places, and with the grocery store humming it was difficult to discern the problem for certain.  However, the line to pay for parking grew by the minute and McDonalds clearly wasn't serving so we paid and left.

Another McDonalds is within driving distance, down in Las Mercedes.  We headed in that direction, passing only two stoplights on the way.  Neither functioned, but neither carried much traffic either.  The drive was quick and easy, until we faced Las Mercedes.

We live up on a hill, a rather suburban little hill.  Its covered with high rise condominiums but it is primarily residential and doesn't carry much traffic.  But at the bottom of the hill is Las Mercedes, a neighborhood of shops and restaurants which carries too much traffic fairly often.  Althouh the area is small, it has taken over 30 minutes to cross on a regular day.  We approached the area and faced gridlock.  Of the four streets in the intersection we faced, we could only drive into one and it was not moving.  No traffic lights created a mess, and the mall in the center had people streaming out.  We made a quick U-turn and headed back home.

We enter our gate with a remote control, but today our vigilante stood guard and opened the garage gate for us.  We walked up five flights of steps to reach our apartment and scrounged for food.  We split three hard-boiled eggs and 2 granola bars for lunch.  The bread had raised nicely, but we had no oven to bake it in.  And after a weekend at the beach, our kitchen had no leftovers to nibble off of.

Annika went down for her nap, and I grabbed a very quick shower (remember, stop #1 was the gym).  Quick partly because the hot water is powered by electricity.  Also quick partly because the water pressure is powered by electricity.  But quick mostly because the condominium stores water in the basement, using a pump system to bring water up to our apartment.  An electrical pump system.  My fast, weak and cold shower used all of the water in the house.

If you recall, the plans for the afternoon involved baking and lesson planning.  Baking wasn't going to happen without an electric oven, so I moved the pans quickly into the fridge.  Lesson planning couldn't happen today without a DVD player.  I could have used the computers, but once I learned that most of the country had lost power I worried that we would be without power for days and left the laptop with its little bit of juice.  Its always funny to realize how connected we are to the power grid.  That I couldn't cook lunch is no surprise.  But I had no contact with the school, either.  Our home phone didn't work, and my cell phone had only sporadic service.  I was notified in person by another friend (listed as our emergency contact with the school) that busses left early and every child was on them.  I had no access to news, making me awfully curious about this country-wide blackout rumor.

So, I took a nap.  And I snacked on a chocolate bar dipped in peanut butter.  And as I waited for the bus to arrive, the power came back on.  The bread was saved and I was still able to spend the evening baking snacks for Lilly's birthday celebration in class tomorrow.  Such a disaster we would have faced if that could not have occurred!