Being plugged in or not has popped up several times earlier this year.
Memorial Day week
My wife suggested the family stay at a timeshare in Hancock, MA, just across the border from New York. I don’t know how relaxing it was for my wife because she had to travel to Albany and back, 45 minutes each way, almost every day for work. One of my daughter’s friends came as well. The entity allowed four devices to be connected to the Internet.
My daughter, her friend, and my wife opted to connect to their phones. But I chose my laptop. I could write blog posts, check email, and post to Facebook. More importantly, I played Wordle on my laptop, and I had a 515-game streak.
Still, I was surprised that I had such poor cell reception outside the resort. Indeed, I couldn’t use my phone until I got about five miles into New York.
June 5/6
About a quarter before midnight, my wife asked to use my laptop. She generally leaves hers at work.
I unplugged mine and gave it to her. When she was done, I put mine back in place, played Wordle, and went to bed.
During the morning, I checked my email and wrote a blog post, et al., until I noticed that my battery was running low. I had failed to plug it in. OK, easy, right? Not easy. I must have stepped on the end of the charger that plugs into the device.
I could get a new one from Amazon in two days, but that wouldn’t do, because Blog, Wordle, et al. So, I hopped on a bus to Best Buy and purchased a Microsoft 65W Wall Surface charger. (I’m writing this so I’ll know what I need in the future.)
June 20
It was the third of three days of 90F+ temperatures. Around 5:30 pm, as the Times Union noted: “A brutal storm blew through Albany early Thursday evening, taking down trees, damaging buildings… National Weather Service meteorologist Brett Rathbun said it’s not likely a tornado tore through the city. Instead, hot and humid air was likely suddenly pushed downward as a cold front rolled in and ended this week’s heat wave, causing short-lived and intense wind gusts in what was likely a pulse, or single-cell, thunderstorm.” Also, power was cut for thousands, including us.
It was fine for a time. The restaurants at the end of Madison Avenue, less than two blocks away, still had power and were doing brisk business. (Actually, the real danger is that drivers, impatient with the nearby intersection, which I have described, nearly caused a dozen accidents.
As nightfall came, my wife took my daughter’s two soaked friends home. My wife and my daughter then went to get more flashlights and to charge our phones in the car.
I tried to read by flashlight, but that got old in six pages. Instead, I sat on the front porch in a lawn chair. Here’s the thing that’s interesting to me: I enjoyed it. A lot. I couldn’t be on my laptop, and I didn’t have my cellphone, so I embraced the moment.
Because of light pollution, city skies aren’t pitch black, so I could peruse the outlines of the massive trees nearby. Watching people negotiate the dark with flashlights and cellphones gave me the feeling that we were all in it together.
Of course, trying to go to sleep sans air conditioner or fan was a drag, but the power thankfully returned at about 11:30 pm.
For about two weeks, I was having severe technical difficulties with my laptop computer. I’d open my browser, usually Google Chrome, but it would inexplicably and unexpectly close. The same thing would happen on Microsoft Edge.