It may not happen often around here, thankfully, but at least once a year, it seems, we are destined to have a power failure that lasts longer than a few minutes. Our most recent into the adventure of life without electricity was this past Friday evening and lasted from dinner time until sometime around 12:30 AM. Needless to say, our plans for the evening changed rapidly.
I had been in the middle of converting CDs of music into MP3 files on my computer, so that process obviously ended. Hubby had been watching TV and our daughter was working on her computer. They both were annoyed by the power loss and soon bored to tears. I played guitar for awhile and then let one of the oil lamps and read a book. So it goes...
But, before I forget, I should talk about those oil lamps of ours, since they make life without power a lot more bearable. I bought a pair of little glass-based oil lamps from Lehmans a few years back and have found them to be very useful. They cost about $12 at the time. They throw more light than candles and burn cleaner. A word of caution - the globe gets very hot, so it's important to avoid touching it when the lamp has been on for awhile. These take standard, cheap lamp oil, readily available - I think we got the last batch at the dollar store. The key to using these for backup light is to keep the reservoir filled and to keep them in a place where everyone can find them. In our house, that means that they're on a readily accessible shelf in my office. I also have a stock of extra wicks for the lamps, just as a precaution. While I would not recommend trying to read by candlelight, reading by lamp light is quite feasible as, despite their small size, these lamps can burn quite brightly. I consider them a must-have in our household.
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