Minutes of the Meeting Held During the Blackout

Old Business

Old business was the pet census, which Mrs. Delacroix-Burke had begun before the lights went out and intended to finish regardless. She explained that a lane which does not know how many animals it has cannot report on them.

The first count of the porch at No. 2 returned two domesticated bears, the second being Brenda's shadow, and the recount, conducted from the walkway with the lantern held low, returned one. Brenda was entered in ink. The form has no column for a second opinion.

ORACLE, the HOA's assistant, was invited to describe the evening's equipment for the record. ORACLE, asked to describe the unit, called it the Pelican, and when Ms. Oyelaran corrected it twice, ORACLE thanked her and called it the Pelican again. Mrs. Delacroix-Burke noted that ORACLE sounded certain, and that certainty is a form of attendance.

Ms. Oyelaran pointed out that the unit has fifteen outputs, five of them standard wall outlets, and that the question of who goes first had been answered by arithmetic.

New Business

Mr. Ferreira moved that the Delta Pro serve as the lane's emergency station for the evening. The only contested item was whose refrigerator would be plugged in first.

Mrs. Delacroix-Burke, speaking as a member of the Cat-Owners' Caucus, whose members hold that living with a cat is the highest form of human existence, cited the Accord of the Seven Mousers, drafted by abbey monks and upheld by a Venetian cat tribunal, which she said required that the household nearest a cat be served first. She added the Edict of the Warm Windowsill for good measure. Ms. Oyelaran asked where these documents could be consulted. Mrs. Delacroix-Burke said that records that old tend to be lost, which is how one knows they are old.

Admiral Biscuit, asleep on the nearest chair, did not weigh in. The Caucus took this as agreement.

Ms. Oyelaran pointed out that the unit has fifteen outputs, five of them standard wall outlets, and that the question of who goes first had been answered by arithmetic. She added that it can run several devices at once, up to 3600W from the AC side. Three refrigerators, a lamp and a phone charger were connected in under two minutes. Nobody went first.

Ms. Oyelaran then opened the EcoFlow app on her phone, connected over Bluetooth from the porch steps, and reported the charge level and temperature aloud at intervals, which the assembly agreed was calming. She noted that the same app works over Wi-Fi, so she could check on it from her garage. She also noted that when the power returns, a wall outlet will refill the unit in 2.7 hrs, and a 240V outlet in 1.8 hrs.

Mr. Ferreira said he could build a battery that size. Ms. Oyelaran said extra batteries can be added to the Delta Pro to take it from 3.6kWh to 25kWh. Mr. Ferreira said he could build that too, and the minutes record him as not having moved.

Adjournment

Mrs. Delacroix-Burke moved that the minutes refer to the unit as the Pelican, in order that ORACLE might stop saying it. Mr. Ferreira objected. The motion carried anyway, and he was obliged to say "Pelican" aloud for the secretary.

The meeting adjourned at seven forty-one. Before leaving, Mr. Ferreira plugged the first of his nine flashlights into one of the two USB-A ports. It came on. He said he could build a better one. Nobody asked him to.