I began to wonder, what are we all hurrying for? When I finally got to my apartment, of course the elevator wasn't working, so I had to climb up a lot more stairs than I wanted to. When I opened my door, I was greeted mostly with a dim blackness. There was no hum of the refrigerator, no blinking VCR light, and no LED clock on my bedside table. Everything was black, and silent. I opened up the windows to let in some light, but that was fading fast. I realized I had no bottled water, no candles to light, no batteries for my battery-backup clock radio, and even the battery on my laptop was dead. I felt cut off from the world, and lost in my own apartment. I didn't want to open the refrigerator, because I didn't know how long the blackout would last, and I didn't want my food to spoil. There wasn't any way for me to cook anything anyway. I have an electric stove, and obviously the microwave wasn't working. I kept walking into rooms and unconsciously turning on light switches or lamps, and then being surprised for a second when they didn't come on. Really, it hit me. EVERYTHING works on electricity, and when there isn't any - there's just nothing!

Besides, it was really hot inside my apartment, and without air conditioning, it seemed like the best thing to do was head back to the street. Obviously, the fast food places were all shut up, but I looked down and saw that some people were bringing tables, food, candles, and stuff outside. Someone down the street had set up a barbecue grill, and people were cooking. Suddenly it smelled delicious!...

The beer was warm and so were the pretzels, but they tasted a lot better than usual.
The August blackout taught me quite a bit about people, about myself, and about our country. We are really a lot more dependent on electricity than we realize, and all we need is something like the blackout of 2003 to show us really how dependent we are. Business, industry, transportation, and just about everything shut down, because it didn't have the energy it needed to operate. A lot of people were annoyed, but a lot more people took the blackout in stride. Some people used it as an excuse to party, and some people used it as a way to get to know their neighbors. People gathered on stoops, in the street, in bars and clubs, and learned how to "dance in the dark." It also taught me a real lesson in being prepared. Now, I have a case of bottled water in my fridge, fresh batteries for my laptop and my radio, and emergency candles stashed around my apartment. I learned that I took electricity and where it comes from totally for granted. Now, I realize we are really lucky to have the constant electricity that we do, and that when it goes away, it's not only an inconvenience, for some people who are sick or elderly, it can mean the difference between life and death because the machines they need to keep them alive may not work. I learned a lot from the blackout of 2003, and I made a couple of new friends in the bar around the…