Power Outages Suck

Ok, how dependent are we on electricity? TOTALLY.

A little thunderstorm blows through and kills the power for 8 hours yesterday. I never realized how life revolves around electricity.

No Lights
No Air Conditioning
No fans
No TV
No Cable
No Internet
No Phone (just upgraded to digital phone through the cable company)
No Computer
No Microwave
No Stove (electrical ignition for the burners)
No Stereo
No ice and water through the door on the fridge

Of course its raining too, so the dogs are going stir crazy, they can't go outside, the other half is pacing because he can't call the electric company to bitch. The dogs are pacing because its just so damned quiet, they are feeling the heat, panting like crazy. Its stifling hot with humidity like the amazon rain forest. As time goes on, tempers flare, one bitches at the other for the silliest things, like opening the fridge and letting the cold out. Its too hot to take a nap, there is no breeze to at least blow the humid air around.

At least the water works, so a cool shower to rinse the sweat off is a little relief. Evening turns to night, darkness swallows up everything. Using flashlights to search for those 4 year old red and green Christmas candles that never got used. We tried playing cards by candle light, but the other half got too pissed that it was hot and he was losing. Went through a half a pack of smokes, going out to the front porch, watching the rain and looking off across the valley seeing all the people with power, lucky bastards.

Eventually the power returns. Life returns to normal, and that temporary trip through hell is forgotten as I drift off to sleep in air conditioned coolness and a house abuzz with whirs and beeps and hums.

Note to self: Buy new red and green candles for Christmas this year.

LOL

living in florida i know what you mean about the heat. we installed a whole house generator, runs off a 25 gallon desal tank. trust me, when the power goes out and you are the only house kit up like a christmas tree with tv and AC you REALLY REALLY think how good that purchase was.

on another note, I heep a big blue tub in the laundry room, its filled with flashlights, candels, called food, a propane stove and other essentials just incase.

having been though the storms last year I am ready

We really do take electricity for granted! We Floridians should have learned our lessons from last year. We have the same emergency supplies piled together - candles, flash lights, canned food, etc. I haven't done the generator, though. But it's coming I know :)

When I first moved here in '99 we had hurricane Irene (the same name as the recent storm out there) sneak in on us and then stalled for 12 hours. I was here barely 3 weeks so the idea of being prepared really wasn't a complete instilled... All I could think of was I had thousands of dollars worth of computer and home electronics equipment at my finger tips and I couldn't use a damn bit of it. And I had stocked up on canned food, but only had an electric can opener LMAOPIP. It was the longest day I can remeber in recent year LOL

Glad to hear you survived, MWCren!!! ;)

yeah power failure sucks we have a 3 bedroom apartment and the fuse box downstairs is one of them old ass glass fuse bullshit breaker boxes (not city code regulation breakers) we could fine the owner of the property but we wont because we get a good deal for a 3 bedroom apartment in a nice area of the city of chicago (lakeview) near downtown... so we need to go change breakers here and there and well we get these lil random power outages that just piss me off ...

then the cable service provider has been having issues so our cable internet has been kinda buggy...off and on off and on i hated it the other day but well they had a major fire at a electrical power station and lost like 30,000 residents power in one area of town. so the cable is working fine now and well the power has been stable but yes i know your PAIN.....

i am debaiting buying a generator or well battery backup for my system(s).

Matt..

OMG at LEAST get a battery backup, if for no other reasion than they give the best surge supression, you dont want to loose a computer in a brownout or a sureg. 16 min ones cost like $50 these days and have a usb cable to tell your computer to safly shut down after like 10 mins.

if you get a generator you will need these to keep your systems up while the generator kicks in, this normally happens about 1-2 mins after the power is out assuming you have an auto start and auto switchover.