A week or so ago, we had a power outage. it lasted about 2 evenings and 3 daytimes (went out at noon, was out the rest of the day and the entirety of the next day and about half of the next day). No internet, no TV, no lights etc. it was frustrating at first but I came to enjoy it about halfway through the 2nd day. We had the generator keeping the freezer running and a heater for the living room (hung a big heavy blanket over the doorway to keep it warm for the dogs). I don't really watch TV, but the other occupants also ran the tv and tethered their cellphone to the TV.

But no power upstairs. it got chilly in the evenings but I sleep better in the cold; I've been known to open the bedroom window in the dead of winter because anything above about 73F is too hot for me to get comfortable. All I had was a flashlight, a deactivated smartphone (IE no cellular service but it can use wifi) a NOAA handcrank radio and a little sony shortwave portable. If you are familliar with shrotwave radio, you know that the modern RF noisefloor is a nightmare for reception, but with the power out I could hear basically everything from here to timbuktu (which could have been literal, if I'd managed to catch anything from Mali!).

The phone, without wifi, does not connect to any networks, cellular or otherwise because I cut that little ball and chain out of my life a few months ago but it is still operable for any non-network related uses. I have slept with a box fan on for most of my life so I often struggle with all the extra ambient noises, creaking of the old people talking downstairs, the neighbor's dog barking at whatever the fuck at 3 AM....so I had to use the noise app on my phone so I couldn't hear every housefly in the tri-state area passing wind, a small concession.

Without lights and internet gizmos, it was much much easier to get in bed and fall asleep at a normal hour of the night. I sleep with blackout curtains which still let in some streetlight glow between the fibers and there are powerstrips and the blinking light on the PC and the alarm clock's green glowing display from within the bedroom. It almost felt like a giant boulder was being rolled off of my chest. I woke up feeling more refreshed than I had in a while. It was invigorating.

That RF noise floor felt pretty symbolic of the way that modern life has been turning out. So much distraction we can't focus on the little signals in life that would otherwise grab our attention (it's also indicitive of the state of modern, gadget obsessed consumerism: poorly engineered junk who's sole purpose is to be as cheap as possible so that the peons can still afford to buy it. Fake certifications slapped on junk from 3rd world slave labor factories that spew out all kinds of hash across the EM spectrum...this is a topic for another day).

It just felt nice to be peeled off of all this bullshit for a while. Now, of course, as soon as the power was back I pretty quickly settled back into old habits of mindless internet and computer usage. But I think it would do good for the soul to deliberately try to seperate myself from all this material trash. So much noise, you can't even think anymore.

I dunno