This Post Has Nothing to do with Writing

Dispatches from the Hot Zone

Aftera series of severe storms, Much of Ohio is without power. 53% of residents in my county have has no electricty for 3 or more days.

The power outage feels and smells like the summers of my childhood BAC (before air conditioning.) It even has he familiar lost sounds, of birds and distant (some not so distant) barking dogs. Instead of the constant whir of the AC and the blare of the TV set, (I don't really miss TV other than the news and Big Bang Theory.) I read every night.. That, too reminds me of childhood nights ready Nancy Drew novels, sometimes under the covers by flashlight once my parents expected me to be asleep.

In the dark I can see lightning bugs. I used to run around the yard and catch them in a jar as a kid, disappointed they were dead in the morning.

Neighbors have been going outdoors, communicating with one another. We gather up lawn chairs and chat in the shade, much the way my folks did when I was a kid.

But all that luscious reminiscence was written early in the outage. We’ve had a week of ninety plus temperatures.

He is how I really feel:

It’s Girl Scout Camp sleeping inside a stuffy spider infested cabin.

It's easy to distinguish those with and those without power. Those with have smooth, styled hair, and they looked less stressed than the mangy haired, wrinkly shirted lot of us without.

My daily habits are awry and I keep forgetting to floss. My teeth and gums feel ranky.

I buy wife beaters to sleep in. I haven’t (yet) resorted to leaving my house in a tank top. I have old lady arms, and I fear my power will return in the middle of the night and my neighbors will see me in boxers and a tank top flapping my arms and flabby white legs as I leap to close the windows and blinds.

On the third day I went to Mc Donald’s for breakfast. They have free wifi. I overhear two older women talking. “Now I know why women get married again when their husband dies. They need help. Forget love. They need help.”

There is a nice breeze coming thru the bathroom window day 4. I'd like to move my couch in there and sleep but it won't fit.

I had bought a couple of O2 cool fans. They are battery operated and provide about 4 hrs of steady breeze. Sleep is tolerable. The inventor deserves a Nobel prize.

Finding various places to hang out is a challenge.
I’ve been hanging around Starbucks, Loitering, along with the hundreds of other powerless. I find new venues in case my picture is hanging under a NO LOITERING Sign at Starbucks.

Went to Giacomos twice yesterday to charge up and use wifi .I can't go the today because it's a holiday. Who stuck a holiday in the middle of a power outage? Not great planning.

Not exercising. Too hot. I did trim some hedges at 7 am by hand. Moved about three muscles. But the rest of me is quickly devolving into a lump of mozzarella cheese. I sweep the flors while the house is still table before meeting Elizabeth for lunch.

Elizabeth and I are squatters at the mall; we plugged in our laptops and phones next to the pop machines, sitting at a table dragged in from the food court.

We talk to a woman whose campsite was vandalized, “And did you hear about the run on the ice truck the other day?”

Elizabeth and I are like teenagers, sitting across the table from one another writing funny messages to each other on Facebook.

ME: Squatters at the Mall starring Laura Moe and Elizabeth Christy. They steal power! They talk to strangers! Rated R.


Elizabeth: R for language. No one is intended to shed any clothing.
about an hour ago ·

Me: That would make it a horror film.

Myra:LOL!!!
23 minutes ago · Like.


Amy:This Almost made me get on the Shadow, drive to the mall, plop at a table near you, and then type something creepy only someone who could see you would know :-) Not ruling it out.
13 minutes ago via mobile · Like.


Me: but Amy, we know what you look like!
2 seconds ago · Like



It's become an uncomfortable comport zone of sorts, lazy heat, do nothing days. Most of my movement happens in the morning when the heat is tolerable. Today the forecast is 100 plus heat index.

There is no writing exercise today because it’s just too hot to write.



Happy Writing and may you be blessed with electricity. :).