電気のない生活を体験しました

こんにちは。久しぶりの「ゆる英語日記」です。

Have you ever lived without electricity except for a scheduled blackout?

That’s what happened to me last week when the circuit breaker for my apartment rooms broke down. That morning I got up to find my radio-clock was dead―its LCD was ominously black without power. At first I thought it was just about the clock, but I realized it wasn’t that when I found the refrigerator wasn’t working, either.

I suspected an unscheduled blackout, but that shouldn’t have been the case as I heard my next-door neighbor vigorously vacuuming….

So, I checked the circuit breaker and sure enough, it had shut down, maybe sometime during the night. Although I reset it several times, somehow it kept tripping. There was nothing I could do about it but call the maintenance office (company) to have an electrician sent over to fix the problem.

For the next five hours before an electrician finally showed up and set up temporary wiring (bypassing the dead breaker), I had to go without electricity. I was surprised to realize how much I have depended on the electricity and taken it for granted.

I walked into the dark kitchen and unconsciously hit the switch before I realized that was no use. Same with the bathroom, the desk lamp, the CD player and so on. Surprisingly, even though I knew more than well that there was no electricity, I found myself reaching for the switches again and again.

On top of that, there was no way to recharge the battery of my cellphone, which now seemed to be the only means for me to get connected with the outside world. I guess it would have been harder to get through this power outage if it had happened after dusk.

Then, my thought went for the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake which hit this area 23 years ago. I can only imagine how hard it must have been for those who suffered from the then-unparalleled disaster.

I’d like to think we are now in the country better prepared for earthquakes and other disasters, which can hit us at any moment, after all these years.

本日もお読みくださりありがとうございます♪

May something wonderful happen to you today!