Had a small adventure in our building tonight. There was a brief but heavy thunderstorm and the lights went out for about an hour. Luckily we have a flashlight, and plenty of candles. The power was out in our immediate neighborhood, and quite a bit east, all the way to York Road.

When the power goes out, of course the elevators don't work, and people have to be manually let in through the side doors of our building, which are normally alarmed. Our building is a secure building with a front and back entrance to the lobby, accessible via an electronic swipe. There are no stairs to the lobby, a serious design flaw in my opinion. The stairwells are in the north and south ends of the building. 

I live on the first floor. Emergency lights came on in the hallways on all six floors. I called the after-hours maintenance number on my cell phone (portable phone needed electricity) to let them know about the outage. My neighbor and I walked to the side door and sure enough, there was someone waving at us, wanting to be let in. A while later we let in another woman who had just returned from a trip, and needed help carrying her luggage up two flights of stairs. When the power came back on, of course I banged my head on the handle of the side door that was propped open while trying to unprop and close it. Then I checked the elevator to make sure no one was stuck.

My neighbor commented that an event such as a power outage often gets people to work together. It is nice to have considerate friends and neighbors who help one another. They almost make up for the one or two assholes who live in our building and are clueless about being part of a community.

On a side note, whenever something unusual goes on in our parking lot (such as snow, heavy rain, or activity other than the usual people/car/pet/bird traffic), our cats are intrigued and run to the window. Last week there was a lift in use so windows could be replaced on the 6th floor. It was right outside our living room window in the parking lot. Every time it moved, it BEEP-BEEPed incessantly (very annoying). Selene sat in the window and growled at it--the noise and motion made her angry.