2006 November 19 Sunday.
Sunday was a sunny day. Can you say that three times in a row, very rapidly? All of the students who come to my classroom can say it like that. It's a part of their lesson for learning how to say the days-of-the-week, words. Anyway, it truly is a beautiful, warm and sunny day today. It's warm because there is no wind. I woke up at about 6:00 this morning and took the photo you can see in yesterday's blog. While I was sitting here in my classroom, updating this blog, suddenly all of the electricity in this building, Taiyo no Sato, went out. "What happened?" I said to myself, out loud. I looked at the clock on my laptop computer screen and it said 8:00. Then I looked out of the window and noticed that all of the traffic lights were working just fine, so I knew right away, that it was not a neighborhood-wide BLACK OUT 停電. After confirming that, I got up and checked the breakers on the electrical junction box in my classroom. They were OK too. Then, I opened the door to the hallway and looked outside. All of the lights in the hallway were out as well. "What's going on here?" I asked myself again. I walked down to the first floor, to see if the watchman was at his post, and I found that he was. I asked him if the entire building has lost its electricity and he replied; "Yes". I waited a few seconds for an explanation, but none was forthcoming. So I popped the big question, "WHY?" He said that there was an inspection of the building's electrical system being conducted right now. Again I had to enquire further so I said, "Until what time will the inspection last?" He said; "8:50". Say what? My wife just woke up and needs to go to work at the Kagura HOMAC by 9:00. She always takes a shower before she goes, but without electricity, the water heater doesn't work, so she won't be able to wash up before she leaves for work today, will she. I didn't say this to the watchman, but I thought it to myself as I turned around and walked back up the stairs to my classroom. When I got to the top of the steps on the 2nd floor, I noticed a small piece of paper, one half the size of a sheet of A4 sized copy paper, taped to the wall next to the elevator entrance. It looked similar to the NOTICE I had received from North Pacific Bank about their parking lot situation, but when I got up close and took a good look at it, I could read the message loud and clear. It said; There will be a power outage in this building on Sunday November 19, from 8:00 until 8:50, therefore the ELEVATOR won't be working during that time. Oh! So now I get the message. I ripped the notice off of the wall and took it with me back to my room. I showed it to my wife and said; "Did you get this notice in our mailbox?" She said; "No, I've never seen it before." My reply was; "Neither have I." Ya see, I don't use the elevator very often because I live on the second floor. I usually take the stairs. The good news is that the electricity came back on at about 8:15. I didn't lose any data from my PC because, being a laptop, the battery kicked in immediately when the power went off in the building. However I did lose my internet connection during that time because my Local Area Network equipment shut down, when the juice in the building was cut. Maybe next time, the building's management team, could put a printed notice in everybody's mail box so that there won't be any nasty surprises. I mean, what if I or someone else was taking a shower, and suddenly the lights went out and the hot water became veeeeeery cold. That would suck big time, wouldn't it. Paying customers don't like nasty surprises. Anyway, because my train of thought while writing this blog was already broken, and I had turned off my PC to save the battery, I decided to go take a long walk in the morning calm. I'm glad I did because it was absolutely beautiful. I walked down to the bank of the Biei River, and then through the 見本林 and over towards the southeast. I was even able to take some very nice photos, one of which you can see on the left. The power-down in this building, 太陽の郷 turned out to be a very good thing after all, because I usually go for a walk after sunset. A sunrise walking expedition is something that I really should do more often. And so should you.
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