The power just came back on after having been off for an hour and a half. No one in the building or on the block that I saw while walking around seems to know why it went out, though I’ve heard that there are severe almost tornado-like winds in northwest DC a few miles from here; here on the Pike, though, it’s neither rainy nor particularly windy.

It’s amazing how dependent we are on electricity. I couldn’t fix a proper dinner, as both the range and microwave are electric; I ended up settling for hummus and pita, cheese and grapes. As the sun continued to set, I finally gave up even on trying to read by dim candlelight and just went out for a walk. The UPS did at least allow me to gracefully shut down the PC, but I’d forgotten to recharge the laptop’s battery recently, so I had no computer access; in any event, the DSL modem also is AC-powered so I wouldn’t have been able to get online. I could have posted via telephone and audblog. I only just now thought about that; I still haven’t gotten used to that service.