I took the Warminster line to work and back and so didn’t go home directly at the end of my day. I made dinner for my mother and I and then got word that the power was back. How?

Dad: Terry, the power’s back on but I don’t have internet on my iPad. How do I get it back?

I walked him through the steps of turning the UPS back on which consists of pressing a single button. He asked how long it’d take and I told him a few minutes. He asked if there was anything he could do to have the internet come back faster.

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.

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.

After my treadmill time today I went to take a shower and there was no warm water so I did my wuss shower using a wash cloth coupled with a sink to wash my hair.  I came down stairs and found on the door a note that said “Warm water off in our bathroom, use the other shower. -Dad”

Periodically my dad gets seized with a bout of “I’m going to fix this” which results in days lacking a basic resource, normally the casualty is our power supply or the water writ large.  Just the hot water is a new one, and I’m glad my dad has found new ways to temporarily break the house.