I like modern technology. It’s what allows me to sit at home, in slippers, and earn a living.

I think everyone who follows my blog or social media knows that I’m an author. That means I sit here and write most of the day, occasionally pausing to stare into space and call it “thinking.” Recently, however, a rainstorm brought flooding and knocked out power to much of the local area. You might assume this meant an unexpected vacation until the electricity was restored.

I certainly did.

That thought lasted less than five minutes.

My wife and I were suddenly without lights, heat, or fresh water (we have a well and an electric pump, which turns out to be a very modern arrangement). Water flowed over nearby roads, and our ability to communicate with anyone beyond our neighbors dropped to roughly nineteenth-century levels. Most modern landline phones need electricity, ours did, and we live well beyond the reach of cell service. If civilization had disappeared right then, we wouldn’t have known.

My wife pumping at the well. Yes, I did help pump.

With no power, the television displayed a useless black screen. We did, however, have battery-powered radios, which cheerfully reminded us that power was out in many locations and roads were flooded and dangerous. This information was not very helpful.

Fortunately, we live on a farm, and as the author of several post-apocalyptic novels, I’ve learned to prepare for unforeseen situations. We hauled wood from the shed and lit the woodstove. Heat situation: solved.

Next came water. We began pumping it by hand, the way people do in old western movies. Everyone back then must have had strong arms. We also gathered rainwater to flush toilets. It takes nearly two buckets to fill a toilet tank, which is information you never need until you really need it. Water situation: solved.

As darkness fell, I gathered a couple of flashlights, and we hunted down candles and kerosene lamps. Some of these hadn’t provided light in years. Light situation: solved.

Finally, I remembered an old-fashioned Bell company dial telephone a friend had given me. I plugged it into the wall, heard a dial tone, and called the electric company.

“To report an outage, press four.”

I stared at the phone. The phone stared back.

After a long and completely useless series of menu options, elevator music, and philosophical reflection, I reached an actual human being.

“Yeah,” they said, “we know the power is out in your area. It’s going to be a while.”

Sigh. The communication situation was sort of solved.

I know exactly when the power was restored because the flash of the light woke me in the middle of the night. However, the next morning, all the lights worked, the internet connected me to the world and water flowed effortlessly from the tap, as if nothing had happened.

I really like modern technology.

I Like Technology