If my online presence has seemed a bit sparse this week, it's because most of my time has been "off the grid".

Without going into the sordid details, we have been without gas and electric for the better part of the past week, and will probably remain so for the next two or three days.

In today's times, it's not an experience I'd wish on anyone -- least of all, anyone with a chronic medical condition. The Other Half and I are fortunate in that none of our medications requires refrigeration, nor are any hurt by cold-but-not-freezing ambient conditions. (Without lights, computers, and all the other electrical equipment we normally have running, the temperature in the apartment stays around 50F in winter, and because we live on an upper floor of a very old building, it's not something the landlord is able to do anything about.) Less fortunate is the "camping at home" experience without benefit of camp stoves and candles (the local fire codes forbid all open flames in apartments other than those generated by gas stoves). In short, we are having to eat all our meals at places that have free Wi-Fi, charging up our computers and phones and getting what Internet access we can during those limited periods of time.

While the 'Net access thing is somewhat manageable by going "old school" -- downloading our e-mail in chunks, reading and responding to them offline, and using our smartphones when we are not otherwise connected -- it's how I'm responding to light (or more accurately, the lack thereof), that is the most surprising aspect of this.

Because I'm never sure which of our flashlights use rechargeable batteries, which use easily-replaceable dry cells, and which use expensive lithium batteries, I've been trying to keep flashlight and smartphone use to a minimum. For good or ill, we live in an area with so much light pollution that after a very short period of adjustment, it's possible to get around the entire apartment without the use of flashlights -- even in the middle of the night. While I don't trust myself in slippery environments such as the bathtub without a generous amount of light, I'm generally quite comfortable with conserving flashlight power for such vital activities as checking blood pressure, blood glucose level, and body temperature -- and reading some of my backlogged magazines.

I was somewhat surprised to find that low-light reading -- whether on a smartphone or by flashlight -- has been giving me headaches.The problem is not eye strain from low light, however -- it's the dynamic range of light. When my eyes have adjusted to dark environments, depending on rod vision (shapes and shadows) rather than cone vision (colors), all but the dimmest of flashlights seem as bright as looking straight into the sun. It's that range from very dark to very light that is painful to me.

The third big issue with lack of electricity relates more towards temperature and diet. Without access to microwave, stove, or oven, my food choices at home are limited to the non-perishable (think: bread, protein bars and jerkies -- if they haven't all-but-frozen, and some fruits) and that which can be purchased ready-to-eat at the abovementioned Internet cafés (of which Panera Bread is probably the healthiest of the local choices). Between poor diet and cold environments, my blood glucose levels have been going up and down like a yo-yo. Add to that the stress (read: unpredictable hours and mealtimes) of retail sales, and I can be surprised by an 80 an hour after a large dinner -- or a 170 three hours later. And despite an increase in my blood pressure medication (or perhaps because of it?), I haven't had what I'd consider a "normal" (i.e., not "high") reading in the past week and a half.

The biggest issue by far, however, is the degree to which I feel disconnected from the rest of the world. With modern telephones -- even the devices on our copper line -- dependent upon electricity, I've been largely incommunicado in a world which is constantly connected five ways from Sunday. I could fall, have a serious hypothermic spell, or a significant glycemic excursion, or a stroke, and nobody would know until some time after the next morning's sunrise. And because I'm not as constantly online as I might otherwise like to be, nobody would even know to be worried.

I'm looking forward to getting the electric power and gas restored, clearing out the refrigerator and freezer, getting back on line, catching up with everything I've missed... and getting those numbers back in line before the holidays come crashing down on me. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.