Our whole day got turned upside down yesterday. It eventually righted itself but not until we’d come to a few realizations.

At about 830 yesterday morning, our power went out. It came as a bit of a surprise – although it shouldn’t have given the howling winds outside – because in the three years we’ve lived here in Cambridge, our power had never gone out.

I grew up in rural midwestern Ontario and our power routinely went out when I was a kid. As a result of that, Mum was always prepared with candles, extra batteries, a stash of cash and plenty of food and water.

But when I moved to the city when I started university, that became less and less of a priority because it didn’t need to be one. I can count on one hand the number of times our hydro went out – great blackout of 2003 notwithstanding!

So yesterday morning, with no hydro, both my other half and I were at a loss as to what to do. Even worse, the power went out before we’d had the chance to make coffee. We had no batteries for the radio, no camping stove with which to heat water, not even a kettle that wasn’t electric. The cell phone was nearly dead – I don’t own a car charger – and we had no cash.

We had just finished boiling water on the BBQ for that much-needed cup of coffee when the lights came back on. Not a moment too soon as far as we were concerned! And once the coffee was made, we sat down and made a list of emergency supplies we should have on hand in case we are ever in a prolonged situation without power – or some other widespread catastrophe.

We are incredibly dependent on electricity for pretty much everything we do and have – especially in our house. We run an online retail business, I work from home a lot and I’m also a blogger.

We take power for granted so much that I’m sure many others are in the same situation we found ourselves in – not having a plan B for when it happens to not be there. Our day eventually got back on track but it was an eye opener.

And as I was reading the Toronto Star this morning, I realized that we were among the lucky ones. We were only without power for a couple of hours or so but many other Ontarians went the bulk of the day without…and some are still waiting to get their lives back on track.