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Small outages must mean better electricity
Paul Sassone
Updated: July 25, 2012 5:42PM
Not with a clang, but with a whisper.
That’s how the power outage announced itself. My bedroom air conditioner just let out a sigh and went to sleep.
This was late July 18, just as the lightning and thunder were beginning to wane on what turned out to be the first round of storms that night.
Oh, great (or, words to that effect), I said to my wife. How long is this going to last?
We’re pretty pessimistic around my house about power outages. We are survivors of the Big Outage of 2008 when we were without power for more than three days.
So, out came the battery-powered fans — each one takes eight D batteries. Once the air was blowing we did a mental inventory of our refrigerator’s contents. Luckily, we didn’t have much in it, unlike 2008 when we lost a whole Market Day order and much other food. I — helpful as always — suggested we should eat any ice cream there might be.
We were ready for the Siege of Powerlessness, a la 2008.
But in a little more than an hour the bedroom air conditioner politely cleared its coil and started humming again.
The outage was over.
The next day in Oak Leaves I read that there still were homes in River Forest without power.
I also read that as of midday on July 19, there still were 24,000 homes in the suburbs without electricity.
How did this happen?
My electricity in Oak Park came back in just over an hour, but people in other suburbs were still without power.
And then I realized why.
I bet it’s the new and better electricity we have in Oak Park.
We Oak Parkers now receive 100 percent of our electricity from green sources, like wind and solar.
That must be it. We have better electricity than everyone else.
So I have been having fewer power outages and those few outages don’t last as long as in former years.
Sorry, don’t mean to gloat, other suburbs. But I feel like celebrating, which I would do, except that I ate all the ice cream last night during the power outage.
