So there we were, Tuesday night, hovering over my laptop, looking at how far we climbed on our bike ride that morning and trying to figure out an alternate route for Thursday when poof, the lights went out! Now night is night, and it was black out there but I’m here to tell you, Vermont night is way blacker than New Jersey night.
Using the light from my laptop screen (battery powered), Chris found the flashlight we brought with us (good thing). We stumbled around, trying to find a fuse box, but couldn’t. We walked outside, to see if our neighbors had power, but they’re not here and so no lights were on. Some landscape lights were on across the street, but they could have been solar powered. What to do?
I guess it’s times like these where you might think that renting a property has it’s deficiencies compared to staying in a hotel but then I thought, what would you, could you do if you were in a hotel? Think about it?
Anyway, we found the caretaker’s phone number, and Chris called. AJ, the caretaker was great, he made some phone calls but couldn’t find out if it was just our house or others in the area. While he was doing that, the power company showed up. Can you believe it? I mean we’re not talking hours later but minutes, like within twenty minutes of our lights going out, the power company was outside, checking to see our status. They told Chris it was a problem on the line, and they were trying to determine the cause. When Chris spoke to AJ again, he insisted on coming out though Chris told him it wasn’t necessary, the power company was on top of things.
Within the fifteen minutes or so it took AJ to arrive, we found another flashlight (so I wasn’t stuck in one location) and lit some candles, which actually made everything seem romantic, and we admired the multitude of stars in the night sky. AJ pulled up and told us the power company was working down the street but wasn’t sure how long it would take. He had brought with him though a generator, just in case. We went inside, and talked (and had a beer) by candlelight and before we could even finish half the beer (okay I had a Sprite zero), the lights came back on.
So much for our adventure. I have to say though how impressed I was with AJ and his commitment to looking out for the guests (he manages over 60 properties, some rentals, some weekend residents, and some permanent residents), and the local power company. I think start to finish, we were without power for less than 90 minutes – kudos to all.