Duh Moment

It is a brilliantly sunny 60-degree autumn day with just a hint of a breeze—exactly the kind of day one expects not to lose electricity. So far, FirstEnergy is mum on the reasons I am running on generator power at the moment. I suspect a squirrel tried burying a winter food stash in a transformer. The other truly odd thing about this power outage is that I didn't notice for a good half hour that I was without power, and not because I didn't have anything turned on. It may be sunny, but I am a tech geek, and for very obvious reasons, solar caller ID has not caught on.

Why, you may rightly ask, did it take me upwards of half an hour to realize the power was gone? I may not always be terribly observant, but I would tend to notice something like all the gizmos in the house simultaneously turning themselves off, even if I didn't have any of the lights on. Thing was, I wasn't in the house; I was wandering the yard inspecting the new flower beds and walking off the aches from installing them yesterday.

Surely, you would think I would notice gadgets being off when I returned indoors. Not necessarily. The first big improvement we did to this house when we bought it was to install a whole-house generator. It automatically kicks on within a minute of sensing a power loss in the house, and provides enough backup electricity to power just about everything except the stove. By the time I went inside, everything that had been on when I left had powered back up, except for the computer that was in sleep mode anyway.

But generators are noisy, you say. Of course they are. Our Guardian produces a noise level comparable to a lawnmower, which is quiet, but far from silent. The neighbors claim not to notice it. Surely, I would, though, since it is right under my kitchen window. Thing is, the generator kicks on once a week for a few minutes to keep the motor in good shape for when it is needed. The power happened to go about an hour before the time the generator normally cycles through. Since this is the first week I had been home on Thursday since the time change, I assumed it was going through its normal weekly cycle. Wasn't until I realized it wasn't turning off that I suspected it was running for a reason.

UPDATE: As I typed this, the power came back. The electric company still doesn't say what the problem is, although their follow-up call to ensure that my power is back on does nicely inform me that the time is 12:41 p.m. so I can set my clocks. Ha. Most of my clocks set themselves.