The Big Power Failure

What started as a brief power failure this evening, turned into an outage of more than 2 1/2 hours. After having not had to go through something like this for at least ten years, I can only say... no electricity pretty much curtails all activity in this house.

My first concern was getting the computer powered down. My computer does not shut down quickly, but I have it hooked into an APC power strip, complete with battery, and I was actually sitting here when hell broke loose, so I began the process of turning the computer off. The APC was beeping, the dogs were freaking out at losing the only remaining light (from the monitor), but I persevered.

Next move was to open all shades and curtains. Seems there was some light out there if I did this. Then I gathered the dogs, a portable radio, and we relocated to the bedroom. I wasn't going to call the power company as I figured everyone was doing that... and how long was the outage going to last, anyway?

My patience lasted just over an hour, when I had to make that call. Not an easy call however, as I would have to locate my glasses, and take the cell phone to the car for a little light. Don't ask where the flashlight was. Two days ago I needed it for something and couldn't find it, so there was no point in looking for it now.

The power company had a recorded message... "if you live in the lovely town of -----, guess what.... your power is out, and will continue to be out for 4 - 10 hours!" In other words, screw you!

Ok, now that my curiousity was solved, I headed back into the house... knowing I was going to have to feed the dogs in the dark, get them outside and back in, in the dark, and then return to the bedroom and the portable radio. I also decided I better unplug the computer. A friend of mine had her machine fried by a lightning strike, so better to err on the side of caution. Mission accomplished.

2 1/2 hours later... voila! The lights came back on. The Tivo powered back up, and order being restored was on the way.

I can't wait to hear what caused all this. It was barely raining. My money is on some jerk in an automobile, knocking down a power poll.