We’re dealing with some stormy weather here (Vancouver for me, but it covers a wider area) and so a patchwork of homes across the region are having power outages. Crews are working to restore it
So on that note, what do you like to do?
- ways to prepare, what to buy, a favourite flashlight from [email protected]?
- how you pass the time
- any stories that come to mind?
Let it go unnoticed as battery and solar handled things.
I like reading. Make sure your Kindle is fully charged, some books downloaded and articles downloaded in Pocket.
That’s actually something I think about quite often recently. People 150 years ago didn’t have electricity at all, what did they do?
First the things that would be really helpful if already built into your home: It helps if you have a gas or wooden stove to cook meals. Same with heating, a masonry stove for example could really make a difference.
Stuff that’s good to have is a small camping gas stove, some LED lanterns, tons of batteries and candles. Powerbanks to charge your mobile phones, maybe a few solar cells on the roof with some batteries connected to it. Maybe even a small emergency power generator. Don’t forget the fuel for it.
What you can do: Go for a hike. Read books, play boardgames and cards. Do puzzles. Write! Get a notebook and a pen ( I recommend actually fountain pens) and do some journaling. Write about your day, your dreams or your concerns. Make a list what parts of the world you want to visit before you die or anything else you can think about. Learn to draw or to paint. Maybe it’s time to put up the guitar that’s gathering dust in the corner.
Something like that. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.
Sleep and hope that I dream and that my dreams take me to the dream noosphere.
Stare.
Contemplate how close to total collapse we are every day
The same things I do when there is power:
chat with my spouse, read, write, sketch, paint, play chess. I will also try to do some chores I have been avoiding for awhile ;)
Edit: we have a few portable reading lamps that will hold for many hours between charges, so we can read during the evening too. We also have flashlights and… candles, just in case we need them (so far, we never were cut off power long enough)
Read books. Go to bed early as soon as it’s dark. Empty the fridge if it’s going to be a while longer.
The longest I was without power was as a kid. A winter storm knocked out power lines all over. It was a week before we got power back on, the longest it took for some was 12 days. We had a wood burning fireplace so my parents invited all the elderly neighbors to stay with us. I wasn’t happy about sleeping on the floor while some weird-smelling old person slept in my bed, but looking back now I’m glad my parents modeled civic-minded behavior.
Us kids played a lot of cards and picked fights with each other. Dad had us scooping driveways in the neighborhood and eventually the streets by hand just to keep us active and out of the house. It was not a fun week.
Blizzard of '93?
Nope, no special name that I am aware of. Other than “that bad storm in October that one year”
The storm itself wasn’t abnormally bad, it was the timing and sequence. It was very early so some deciduous trees still had leaves. The storm started with rain, then slush, then it all froze. So tree branches were overloaded with weight and tore down. Oak trees that had survived for a century were downed. Older neighborhoods and towns with power lines on poles instead of buried lines like newer communities would have now had pretty much all lines and poles torn down. Lineworkers from all over the country were brought in to help. I was too young to really follow at the time, but I’m told some of the delay was simply supply chain; getting enough new wires and poles there quickly enough to keep the crews supplied.
Obsessively refresh the “There is a power outage in your area!” page.
Hilbernate. The other half uses the e-reader. Anything e-ink should have incredible battery life.
I don’t remember when the last one happened. We have like 5 minutes of downtime per year in Germany on average
I remember we used to get power outages all the time in my countries. But that was the 1970s, modern infrastructure has moved on
Well, everywhere except AHEM 🤔
Also German here, that seems a high estimate. The only downtime I had this year was when the workers building our sidewalk grazed a cable bug I can’t remember any over the last few years…
I assume even stuff like ahrtaal is calculated in. So for the average person it’s a lot lower.
Playing the piano to pass the time. There’s a certain eeriness that I find quite enjoyable of having the music flow while in nearly total darkness.
Last time this happened to me we hastely turned our dinner in a romantic candle lighted dinner.
Lots of babies are born 9 months after major power outages. I hope you enjoyed your company.
I only seem to get power outages at night, after the sun has set. So besides burning some candles or using flashlights until I’m sure I have everything I need, I usually just call it a night early and go to sleep. The power is usually back on by the time I wake up in the morning.
Before that, I’ll make sure to shut down my computers. I have several of them running on an UPS, so they don’t lose power when it goes dark; however, they burn through my UPS battery within 30 minutes or less, so I need to make sure they’re safely shut down first.
My power used to very unreliable and I’d get rolling brownouts (flicker of power) every now and then. Which would kill my PCs. So I got the UPS so they maintain power, regardless of a blackout or brownout. Ever since, my computers stay on 24/7 without problems.
Last outage we had, one of the first things I did was take a hot shower. Our water heater is electric and if it became extended I might not get another chance.
