Off the map

7:45am

Ever see a town just disappear?  I see it all the time.  In the blink of an eye our tiny little town vanishes from sight.  Not even Google Earth or the strongest satellite would see us right now.  We are off the map.  I’d like to know some morning when it’s going to happen so I could watch it from the sky, or at least from the highest point in town.  Just watch the town go dark, watch it disappear.

That’s what it feels like right now though, and every morning that the beeping continues.  What do I see when I peer out the window?  Nothing but darkness surrounds the eyes, yet I know what I’m supposed to be seeing.  The street lights the speckle the gravel road, the safety light from the school and the little house lights up and down the coastline.  They are gone, if only for now. 

The first thought that came to my mind this morning, but not any of the others that this has happened was:  “We’re invisible!”  No one could see us even if they wanted to.  I doubt that my flashlight would even grab someone’s attention if it needed to.  Invisibility is cool, Harry Potter showed us that, but ours is temporary at best.  When the sun rises and gives us the natural light we’ll lose that cloak of darkness and become part of the modern world again but for now, it’s kind of cool to think about.

All is not lost in the world of power, we have a generator that can be switched on.  It’s just loud, it’s raining out and quite frankly, I don’t know how to turn it on yet.  I can get ready by flashlight and the head teacher here, she isn’t a “morning person.”  Since I’m good getting ready for school in the dark, there’s really not a need for it now that I have the earplugs.  The beeping is about 10 minutes away from being over with now.  (It goes for about an hour)  The Internet only lasted for about 35 minutes this time around. (Sorry about the Skype session Sister, it went out just as you asked!)  So now it’s off to get ready for school by flashlight and have a bowl of cereal before heading to a dark classroom to begin my day.

Invisibility, darkness, adaptation, it’s the Alaskan experience!

7:56 am