The Machines Have Turned

The power’s out, sort of. The clocks are going mental. The microwave clock was flashing some high speed intricate pulsing sort of thing while the bedroom clock has no numbers at all, just the “ : “ between the numbers, glowing weakly as though time got tired. The scanner was constantly re-calibrating itself and the air conditioner was making a faint and intermittent beeping that I have never heard before. It was switched off at the time.

And it all happened right after this ...




I’m not always good about switching off the computers during a storm but this one was different somehow and I shut down Big Media and old Skook, and disconnected little Jr from power and network connections. Laptops are great in that regard.

(2hrs later) Just came out of a two hour brown-out. Dim lights, scwewy-wabbit clocks, modems blinking…finally had to go around and unplug everything including the fridges which were starting and stoping with ever-so-quiet clunks which were insidious in their subtlety, like a bully gently smacking its hand with its fist. No good could come of it. But just now the hall light which I had left on sprung to full brightness again and a small cheer was raised by P4 (so brave). The lights on the modem and router are behaving normally again – I don’t know what they mean, but its comforting to see them flickering softly again instead of signalling the mother craft or whatever that shit was before.

1/2 hour later.