Driving back from town today at around 2.30, the road was nearly invisible beyond the falling snow. As we rounded a bend the house on the left hand side of the road suddenly disappeared. I looked across in time to see the lights in the windows of the house opposite turn dark orange before that house too fell into darkness.
Power cut.
The streetlights were gone, the porch lights were extinguished and the moon was hidden behind the snow clouds. The only light then was what came from the headlights of our car. Any houses close enough for our lights to hit them looked uninhabited, abandoned and cold as we passed. Like humanity had disappeared with the electricity. It was the first time I'd thought about how people might have dealt with polar winter not so long ago, before electric lighting and under-floor heating in the bathroom were common.
My computer tells me it has thirty minutes of power left. I don't know how long the battery on the modem will last. It's actually quite nice sitting here in the candle light, listening to the fire burning.
Outside very little is visible: The streetlamps far away on the other side of the fjord, where the power must be on another part of the grid. Out on the water a small boat is scanning the shore with its search light, maybe trying to make its way in to land.
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| Marthe in the dark |
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| The view from my house now |
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