It may have been surprising because we'd just enjoyed the inky and white-blotted clarity that the nights in Idaho presented us.
On Wednesday last, during the afternoon, an underground explosion of a transformer had ruptured though a sewage pipe and rendered the majority of our neighborhood without power. Manhole covers were blasted skyward.
Oddly our apartment had electricity, as did many of the domiciles around us, but the streetlights and stoplights were not working. It was dark for our part of a nearly-half-million strong city.
The next day, Thursday, upon attempting to complete some errands necessary before debarking on our trip to points east and north, nearly all of the establishments we walked to were dark. They were closed and nearly all had handwritten notes on computer paper informing passersby that because of the power outage they'd be closed that day and hopefully open tomorrow.
Thursday evening and the lights were still out. We crept slowly through intersections on the way to the freeway in the eerie darkness. It was all very surreal.
How could a transformer explosion bring commerce in a fair-sized city to a grinding halt, leaving intersections wild-west affairs of defensive creeping?
The darkness did make for some neat palm tree silhouetting among the light pollution from the relatively nearby unaffected neighborhoods.
Dude. Today I witnessed something I've never witnessed previously. The street light at Elverta and Walerga was Red and Green. On the Railroad, that Aspect is known as Diverging Clear, so I was good with it. Holly was more hesitant, but we kept moving. She almost got her camera out in time for a photo but missed it by a couple seconds. Glad your home homie. It was great seeing you and the Misses.
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