Sunday, October 2, 2016

The Islandwide Blackout, Zombies and Babies. Wait, Babies? Seriously, it was a crazy week. The power station in Salinas, Puerto Rico caught on fire and left the entire island without power. Shortly after that the water service, internet, cellphones and cable television all went out as well. We were completely in the dark in all aspects. Only a few radio stations were broadcasting. The Puerto Rico governor called for a state of emergency as the power was not projected to return for several days. All gas stations ran out of fuel the first day and ATM and credit card machines did not work. It was a mini zombie apocalypse, without zombies. I will admit the night sky was as bright as the Alaskan sky for those three nights. Another interesting observation during the blackout was everyone actually talked. No one buried their faces in their cellphone (like zombies, lol). In the waiting room at the hospital people actually talked to each other. In the elevators people actually talked. And so on and on and on. It was refreshing to see the interaction between strangers and friends. Some of us saw the power outage as actually a good thing. Ok, back to the most important thing, the babies. My oldest daughter Berkley has never made things easy. During the first day of the power outage is when she and her babies decided to join us. The hospital was running on generators and they also had a backup water supply. It was a normal day inside the hospital except for the lack of internet and cable television. At around 9:45 the twins joined the us in the world of the living. We did not get to see or hold them until around 5:00 pm. Berkley returned to the room around noon and went to sleep right away. The day was very different from a normal day as outside the thunder, lighting lasted for most of the day. We watched the storm from the hospital windows while talking to total strangers. Yes, talking. It’s a form of communication that occurred before cellphones took over the world and made zombies out of all of us. These little incredible bundles of joy came into the world during what most called one of the biggest disasters in many years. The major energy blackout, water shortage, cellphone outage, internet outage, cable television outage and incredible tropical storm. I guess you could say they came in with a bang, so to speak. As the days went on we noticed that no one really was upset about the lack of services. It was kind of like being on vacation for a week in a far off paradise. We all rather enjoyed it. The power was restored on Friday morning at 1:00 am. And the water, internet, cable all started working shortly after that. You could hear the neighbors cheering down the street. I guess before we knew it we were all back to the land of zombies? Almost immediately my cellphone started to get text messages, emails and voice mail notifications. Chirp, beep, chirp, chirp, beep, beep and on and on and on. I could feel my anxiety level start right away. Three days without being connected. You should all try it. You might find you like it. I realized some very important things from the recent blackout and seeing the new bundles of joy. Maybe it’s time to let the zombies stay on TV and start living in the real world. Let’s turn these devices off. Let’s change how we communicate. Let’s play games, have dinner together, celebrate life and enjoy the land of the living. The recent mini disaster was a blessing just like my daughter’s little bundles of joy.

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