Bill Yell, utilities spokesman, said workers couldn’t determine what kind of animal was electrocuted after it got into the substation equipment at 2:08 a.m. “This caused a fault in the substation and created the outage,” he said.
This curious, possibly suicidal, mystery critter, threw me and 17,999 other Huntsvillians into total darkness. As I sat in my pitch-black apartment, minutes before my eyes had time to adjust to the dark, I could only think one thing.
Where is my flashlight?
Once found, I realized that my flashlight has been dead for nearly 4 years. Then I remembered that I started collecting matchbooks from bars and pubs around 6 months ago. Excellent. I could grab a spare matchbook and cut through the darkness with a tiny firelight.
Quick side note: a mere few hours earlier I went on a tear and re-arranged/cleaned my entire apartment. I had grown tired of my slobbish lifestyle. It was time to adopt the life of a neat freak.
This newfound ?religion? put a kink in The Plan?. Because I had cleaned my house, I had no earthly idea where anything could be found. A house that I once knew like the back of my filthy piggy hands had become foreign to me. I might as well have been dropped in the middle of the Sahara or a cotton field on the outskirts of town.
So I stumbled around my newly empty space. Cursing the darkness cause I couldn?t find a light. What I did find was my cell phone. That soft green glow was a welcome digital torch in my 21st century cave. It gave me the chance to find my Gerber knife that was a wedding party gift from DT. It has a small penlight. Very talented that knife. After replacing a bright sickly green glow with a dim amber one, I stumbled outside.
Two of my neighbors were just standing around just outside my door. David had his cell phone and was doing his best to find out what was going on. Deb was? well I?m not exactly sure what Deb was doing. She was clutching her candle and looking increasingly worried. With little else to do, we played junior detectives at 2:15 in the AM. Our informal meeting was held on the sidewalk of our building.
?I thought I saw a candle or something a minute ago?
?Where??
Points into the black, ?Somewhere down there.?
?It sure is quiet out.?
?Yeah, no one is around at this time of night. I was surprised to see you guys.?
?I was watching Identity when the power cut off.?
?Really? I liked that movie.?
It was one of the few enjoyable meetings I?ve had in my life. The sleuthing slowly wound down and I mentioned not having candles. David offered up some of his. His girlfriend had some of those small scented candles. I guess they would be pulling double duty tonight. I thanked him for his neighborliness and went back to my cave to sleep.
The moment my head hit the pillow, the lights came back on.
