February 18th, 2023Just sayin’… By Donna Kelly

DINNER done and I was sitting down ready to watch, again, Mr Inbetween. It’s a great Australian series, quite dark, but also very funny. The guy who wrote it is also the lead character.
Anyway, Ray was about to shoot someone and, the power went out. Now this
may seem a first world problem but it literally happens all the time. And you get that
annoying phone message that Powercor is aware of the outage and it should be fixed
by…some time later. Last Thursday it was originally going to be done by midnight but
that quickly became 12.30am. And it went out about 8pm.
Now, I am sure you are thinking there are plenty of things to do in the dark but
Kyle and I have been together for 29 years so we barely even talk to each other, let
alone do other things. I put out a FB message saying if one of us was murdered it was
on Powercor. Just in case.

So we found our trusty giant torch, some candles and a gas lighter and put some
Spotify music on. Seventies road trip, I think. And then we just sat and listened to
the tunes. And wondered how long the UPS (uninterrupted power supply) would last
to our computers and whether we should shut down our programs before they shut
down themselves and we lost data. You know, stories, photos, graphic design work.
I might have posted a few things on FB. A little complaint perhaps. Might have
used the F word. And some people put smiley faces on it and others said I should
be more careful because “what if someone had of been injured”. I didn’t bother
correcting the grammar but then I saw that someone had not been injured but had
hit a power pole in East Street in Daylesford. Maybe speeding but that is not for me
to say. But you would have to hit a pole pretty hard to take out the power.
Anyway, I am sorry someone hit a power pole but why does that take out
power all the way to Glenlyon? It’s a good 10km – I know that because it used to
be a 20km round trip to pick up a bottle of wine at the end of the day. (Thank you
Cellarbrations for starting up a great delivery service!)
Imagine if you lived in Melbourne and someone hit a power pole in say, St Kilda
and power all the way to Black Rock went out, closing all the businesses along the
way. People would be up in arms.
And it happens all the time here. I asked a few friends who live around
Melbourne how often their power went out and they looked at me like I was starting
a joke. When we had that massive storm in 2021 and they lost power for about four
days in Trentham, all the media reports were focused on power being lost in the
Dandenongs. While all the Trenthamians, is that what they are, got on with life, those
nearer Melbourne were outraged. We are just used to it.
I know Powercor will sometimes reimburse people for lost fridge and freezer food
but I reckon they would be better off giving everyone a free generator when they sign
up for power. Would probably be cheaper in the long run and lead to less “neighbour
envy” when you are sitting in the dark and listening to your neighbour’s generator
whirring away. (Yes, I am talking about you, Gary.)
Anyway, the torch is back in the cupboard, the candles have returned to the
dining table and thankfully, we did not lose data so you are reading this edition of
The Local in a timely manner. And we wait for the next blackout. Perhaps today – it’s
quite hot, next week – might be windy, or any time of the day when someone wants
to drive a bit fast on a country road. I guess I could write to Powercor and see if they
can make sense of it all but I have a feeling I will be left in the dark. Just sayin’…
(I was wrong. Powercor got back to me. Read their reply at www.tlnews.com.au)