The Little Things

Last night the wind was blustering and blowing and causing the power to flicker. I personally love windy days with swirling leaves out the window...as long as I am warm. I thought, gee it might be fun if we lost power for just a little while. Sure enough the power blinked out around 10ish or so. The kids were already in bed so no fuss on that end of things and Brian and I lit a few candles and played a game of Cribbage and headed to bed. The alarm thing wasn't a problem since, like almost everyone else in a developed country, we have cell phones (though we have no actual coverage at our home and have to use our WiFi in order to make calls). However I did start to miss a few of the little things, like heat, and the ability to cook food. I am certain that when our stove needs replacing we will be upgrading to a gas stove and that will no longer be an issue but heating a house so large will be a different story, especially since I have no clue how to make my gas fireplace work without flipping the switch on the wall. I am sure there is a way and maybe this will be motivation to figure it out.
Anyway it got me thinking about how much of a pain in the ass it would be to go on with modern daily life without power. If we were thinking long term here there are several things: forget the tv and computers that is just extra but the basics such as heat and cooking would require a gas stove and a wood burning fireplace (or at least any easy way to light my gas one). The refrigerator would work too keep things cool for only so long, however I guess I could buy blocks of ice to keep in there. I would have to get out my old, non portable phone. The fish tank would have to go. Dishes would be done by hand and hot water would be a major challenge. I do have a gas BBQ that I could use for cooking and heating water (though the process would be slow as any sane person knows this can't be used indoors). Washing our clothes would be a much more challenging process as well, but could be achieved.
Anyway you get the picture its all 1800's and stuff but really it makes sense why people had to work so hard from sun up to sun down just to get the 'little things' taken care of.
Our power popped back on around 8 this morning and I was very happy to feel the heat conveniently blowing out of the floor vents and was able to plug the computer back in and re-connect. I think I'll do a little more to be prepared for future outages that may last longer than a few hours.