Yup, it was lights out here at The Saratogian for a couple hours this afternoon, as it was for most of downtown Saratoga and Wilton and Greenfield. When the power blinked out, and my computer, the nexus of my universe here at The Saratogian, became a useless chunk of metal, glass and plastic, I stared at it blankly for a few moments, and picked up my notebook and went out for a walk.

It seemed that hundreds of Saratogians had gone through a nearly identical thought process. With most businesses now so intimately bound to technology that work is impossible without them, there were a lot of people with nothing to do milling around Broadway. From people in suits, to retail clerks, to waiters and waitresses, it was a veritable cornucopia of those who couldn't work out on the street this afternoon.

Happily, the outage occurred between gushing downpours, so those of us on the street were able to enjoy being outside in the sun and relative warmth. Everyone seemed a little confused, but still happy for the unexpected break. It felt a little like a fire drill, except there were no teachers yelling at you to be quiet. It was a nice day, and it was nice to enjoy it that way.