I hate this

Ivan Seeking

One of the worst aspects of rural living has been the power outages. Once again, here I sit by lantern light wondering if this will take one or two hours, or two days. I can fire up the generator if needed, but that's only enough power to run the smaller appliances. If it gets much colder, I may have to fire up the wood stove.

I didn't know that we were going to have a wind storm. It is really howling out there and I did nothing to prepare. Also, I think our shiny new local power lines lured me into a false sense of security.

chroot

It's pretty remarkable that you manage to surf PF without any power. (Laptop battery?)

It looks like the pacific northwest is getting pretty much hammered this week.

- Warren

Moonbear

Hamster power!

I'd hate to have the power go out in winter. I don't mind so much in summer (I grew up accustomed to power outages every thunderstorm, and as long as it's warm and you have a BBQ, you can deal with it). At least you have a wood stove to keep warm!

ranger

In NYC its a big deal if power goes out for a few minutes, let alone a few hours. I cant even remember the last time we had a power outage.

Rach3

I can, and I don't even live there!

Moonbear

Yeah, it's on the news every time there's a power failure in NYC.

Kurdt

The only reason that they're new and shiny is that they get replaced so often due to damage

scorpa

I feel your pain, the power is always going out at our farm. I remember a few years ago in the winter we lost power for 3 days, no generator no nothing, luckily we have a gas stove so we could at least use that to cook. Worst part is that no power means no water, so you can't even use the shower...ick

Astronuc

Try August 14, 2003 some time just after 1600 ( 4 pm). It was about that time when the lights dimmed and my PC's shutdown as we had a voltage drop. The power stablized for a few seconds and then went out. We then learned the street, then neighborhood was out. Then we learned the state was out, and finally the entire northeast US and parts of Ontario.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_No...erica_blackout

We were without power for about 36 hrs, and others were days without power.

Loren Booda

Ivan,

Where's that old pioneer spirit? Break the ice on the pond for a bracing bath. Dip tallow for winter's candles. Be thankful that at least you have a thundermug!

jtbell

Around here we use gerbils. When our server bogged down during a lab in the programming class that I used to teach, I sometimes said, "looks like someone forgot to feed the gerbils again."

Just pile on the blankets, wear a warmup suit for pajamas, and make sure you have someone else in bed with you. That's how my wife and I got through two nights without power after a blizzard knocked out our town completely a few years ago. It helped that our water heater uses natural gas instead of electricity, so at least we had hot water!

Ivan Seeking

Yep, laptop battery and dial-up. I don't even own a tower. Normally we're on DSL modems, but I keep the dial-up account for travel and emergencies.

We are getting hammered and there is much more to come. Luckily this outage only lasted a couple of hours. I ended up running into town and the power was on when I got home.

In the past it used to be much worse, but in recent years it hasn't been so bad. Hopefully the days of losing power every time the wind blows are over. Turns out that this was a fairly expansive outage so it got fixed quickly. If the problem is on a minor line, it can take a long time before they make it out; esp when there are other areas going down.

The neighbors tell me that about five years before we bought this place, this area lost power for ten days during freezing weather!

Ivan Seeking

Have you noticed that the pioneers are all dead? You see where that kind of thing will get you?

hypatia

You get those freaky low pressure systems there. A friend of mine lives on the northern coast, she pays more attention to her barometer then to her thermometer.
Glad to her you got power back, the sense of adventure is not so much fun when your cold.

kesh

I live on a boat with no power but that which i generate. Laptop, lighting, cellphone charger and radio is powered by 330 amp hours of 12 volt lead acid powered by a wind gen and the boat's engine. Wind is a good thing for power!

turbo

My wife and I live on a sparsely-populated back road, so when there is a wind storm in the forecast, we fill lots of jugs with drinking water (we have a well with a submersible pump) and get the generator ready (power cords to critical or nice-to-have equipment). I was told by a lineman for the power company that our road is about the last place in town that will get power back when there are widespread outages. He wasn't lying. That's OK. We have a gas stove for cooking, a gas water heater, and a wood stove (our primary heat source).

Evo

Wow, quite a storm Ivan, 100 mph winds and three dead. How did you fare?