the dimming of the light (Part 3)

Peter Hunter

Day 1 continued

  1200 noon

' and then?' asked Sharon

Three thirty and the daylight was already fading - but the friendly flicker from the wood burner gave light as well as warmth.

'We stick together' I insisted, 'probably involving the Colonel from next door. As an ex-army man he should prove useful, maybe move him in here with us. It makes sense to share resources. Silly to burn logs in both houses. He also could probably benefit by using some of our frozen food before its unfit to eat. We have too much to use up ourselves in time'

'Always assuming the worst' Sharon was not optimistic

'He's also got a tank probably at least half full of heating oil' added Chris ' that he cannot use as his heating system needs electricity for the pump.'

'If this thing continues for any length of time he could tap the tank and use the domestic heating oil in his Range Rover - it's got a diesel engine and heating oil is not that different.'

'Good idea' I said 'and I expect that is what the farmers will do - they mostly have big tanks of diesel on their land - unless the supply is underground and they use an electric pump.'

'Some might also have diesel powered generators?' mused Chris.

'Hopefully this is pure speculation and by tomorrow morning the lights will be on and everything will be back to normal' Alice was forever optimistic.

I was not so sure - having a very bad feeling about this - it did not seem right

  but water had to be the first priority. The tank-full in the roof would not last long

  even just for drinking.

We could not wash unless we brought in rainwater from the butt outside and we could not use the lavatory soon filling the sewer, which would not be draining due to lack of power at the pumping station further down by the brook

  it would have to be buckets then burying it in the garden. For me, I thought, this would not be to great a problem - merely an extension of my first seventeen years in a tiny remote Norfolk cottage

  the sanitation similar, but although then we had no electricity we had several oil lamps and of course I was young and knew nothing else

Did we have a spade? If so and it broke how could we replace it? Who would do the manual work? At seventy-two I was too old

  just one of the many things to be thought about.

Obviously we would have to co-operate with others as we were already doing with Sharon and Chris

  but how many?

What was the best balance between sharing and being selfish?

More speculation in front of fire

  Could it go on? Disasters usually are helped by people from other areas - so how extensive could this be? We had hardly any candles and torch batteries limited. We decided to hope tomorrow would see things back to normal, but to prepare for the worse.

Starting to eat only the freezer contents before de-frosting would lead to deterioration - steak, pheasants and other good food

Eat drink and try to keep cheerful - for tomorrow?

To be continued

Peter Hunter 2012

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