Last Night a Squirrel Caused Some Chaos

Sunday started out like a pretty full day.

I spent about five and a half hours with an in-person organizing client, stopped by The Container Store on my way home (because it happens to be near her house, and it's about 45 minutes from mine), fixed dinner, did a little housework, and then met with a virtual client in the evening.

Everything seemed completely normal.

Until it wasn't.

While I was on my virtual session, the lights in my office started flickering.

At first, I figured it was just a random blip.

Then the power went out.

Except...not all of it. My desk lamp still worked. The ceiling fan was running, but the light attached to it wouldn't come on.

A few minutes later everything came back.

Then it went back off.

Then some lights worked.

Others didn't.

It was so weird!

Like most people, I did the first thing that came to mind—I looked outside.

One neighbor appeared to be without power.

The next house over had lights.

Another house farther down the street looked completely normal.

I texted my partner, who was traveling for work. He suggested I check the breakers.

Everything looked fine.

I texted my parents, who live about six minutes away. They had power.

At that point I wasn't overly worried.

Annoyed? A little.

Concerned? Not really.

I figured there was probably just some issue with the power grid that would sort itself out.

Then things got weirder.

Around 9:15, I left to pick up my son from the movies and drop him off at a friend's house.

When I came back home, I heard a loud noise before I even opened the door.

The smoke detector.

My heart immediately skipped a beat.

We had a house fire a few years ago, and that's not something I was interested in experiencing again.

I walked through the house.

No smoke. No smell of anything burning.

The alarm stopped. Then started again. Then stopped again.

At that point I wanted someone to tell me everything was okay.

I called the local fire department, but since it was after business hours no one answered.

So I called the non-emergency number.

Within a few minutes, a firefighter arrived.

As luck would have it, while he was walking through the house the lights started doing their strange little on-again, off-again routine.

He checked outlets, looked for anything that seemed unusual, and then walked around outside.

That's when he noticed a power line hanging lower than it should have been.

He called the power company.

The repairman arrived and found the problem almost immediately.

It looked like a squirrel had chewed on one of the power lines.

Who knew one determined squirrel could create so much chaos?

He explained that he could repair it, but he'd need to shut the power off completely while he worked.

No problem.

I was the only one home, so it wasn't much of an inconvenience.

I figured I'd stay awake in case he needed anything.

Eventually, though, I gave up and went to bed.

At some point I got up and looked out the window.  I noticed he'd left, but I still didn't have power.  I did see a deer hanging out in the field across the street.  That was pretty cool.

A little later I heard the repair truck return. I assumed the lights would come back on sometime during the night, but they didn't.

By morning the house was warm, the air felt stale, and my phone was completely dead. I woke up to my watch notifying me that my partner was calling.

I jumped in the shower (in a surprisingly dark bathroom), got dressed for work, and headed toward the garage...only to be rudely reminded, as I hit the opener, that the garage door also needed electricity.

Shoot!

Back into the house I went.

I grabbed my laptop so I could charge my phone long enough to call the power company.

I plugged in the charging cable I'd pulled from my work bag.

Nothing, sort of. It charged for about thirty seconds before stopping.

I laughed, because I knew exactly why.

This was the charger I'd been keeping "just in case."

The one that only worked if you held it exactly right.

The one that frustrated me every single time I used it.

The one I kept because"maybe I'll need it someday."

Well, someday had arrived.

And it still didn't work.

I immediately threw it into the trash, grabbed another charger, and called the power company.

Within about twenty minutes the same repairman was back at my house.

As it turned out, they'd repaired the line overnight but had forgotten to turn my meter back on.

Two minutes later I had power again.

By then I was mostly relieved.

But I also learned a few things.

First, if your power starts doing strange things, don't wait as long as I did to call the power company.

Second, if you park in the garage, it might be worth moving your car outside if the lights start flickering.  At least I will from now on.

And finally...

Maybe stop keeping things that don't actually work.

That charger cable had been frustrating me for months.

Instead of being helpful in an emergency, it simply added another layer of frustration.

Sometimes we hold onto things because we think they'll save us someday.

Sometimes they're just taking up space.

That lesson felt oddly familiar.

Maybe decluttering has a way of showing up even during a power outage.