Brownouts and Blackouts

In Slovakia, the power flickers quite regularly. I’m not sure if these are power surges… or if there is something else going on. However, I know that at school and at home, it is not unusual for the power to turn off and back on again in rapid succession. Most of the time, these power issues are only minor blips in the course of a day; however, sometimes, they cause trouble.

At about 4:45, we experienced what Heidi calls a “brownout.” All the lights in our house grew very, very dim. We weren’t sure what to think of this. Our best guess was that someone in our apartment building had gotten a microwave and that the power it took to use the microwave had temporarily limited our own power supply. After about ten minutes of dim mood lighting, our brownout became a blackout. So, Heidi and I lit some candles and a wonderfully relaxing evening at home. This is a picture of us cooking dinner in the dark. Keep in mind – this picture was taken at five minutes after 5pm.