It has been raining since yesterday afternoon, but now we are visited by a real storm. The rain is coming down in buckets. Borgo has turned into a gurgling river. It is thundering all around Motovun, as well. Thus it feels like summer rather than autumn. But there is one familiar thing that comes along with every storm worthy of the name: there is no electricity. This time it is serious, too. It conked out twice, but only briefly, and then it went out for good. That was half an hour ago, which is why I am surrounded by candles as I write. How long will it take for the electricity to come back, though? That is anyone’s guess, of course. After all, this is only Istria.

Addendum (October 28, 2012)

Yesterday’s blackout lasted about two hours. Well, the electricity conked out briefly once again another hour later, but that was just a minor glitch. Returning to the blackout, I got really worried after a while, for life without electricity has become rather thorny. And it is only a century since it came to these parts. No matter how often I tell myself that I ought to live without it, I cannot even imagine how would it feel. Not even my parents could remember how it felt when the electricity came to Krk and Pazin in their early youth. Anyhow, the dream of freeing myself from this cornerstone of our civilization is just that, a silly dream. Life without my many computers and the World Wide Web is actually beyond my comprehension. And this is perhaps why I keep dreaming of another and less encumbered world.