Power outage musings

Never expect to be relying on batteries until the power fails

Power went out the other day across most of the entire small town of Camrose, as some tool digging and severed a main power line...

Funny enough, my first thoughts came to mind, is I'd be screwed if it was more than a few days without electricity. After watching The Walking Dead, I have doubt at my long-term survival rates. I don't exactly have a cottage or farm in the wilderness to hide out, nor the highest survival skills other than boy scouts years ago. There was no merit badge for zombie invasion defenses.

Just for show, now where does a plug-in go?

Not that I am fearfully mongering for end of civilization as we know it, it's just odd sometimes the reminders of how "lucky" we are in this modern age. My kerosene lamp is purely for decoration....

Check-list of basics electrically taken for granted:

• hot water tank didn't work
• furnace didn't work
• stove didn't work
• dishwasher didn't work
• coffee-maker and kettle sadly didn't work
• lights didn't work
• garage door opener didn't work
• even the doorbell didn't work

Lack of electricity forced me to take stock of how many modern activities are tied to electronics.

Even my shaver and even toothbrush are electric -- They hold a fairly good charge, but it'd be another five minutes out of my day to clean and lather up manually.



Less essentials are entertainment-based, but better than a pack of playing cards and solitary or cribbage sometimes.

• telephone via modem router didn't work
• Internet didn't work
• computer didn't work
• TV and Blu-ray player didn't work
• radio didn't work
• e-Reader book neither
• cellphone had a bit of battery life still, but it wouldn't be working soon either

The list went on and it was half frustrating because nothing was functioning. It was almost humourous after a while stuck with first world problems.

I could live without being able to check the voicemail, as it's an electronic mailbox. I couldn't be contacted anyway, nor write emails. Oh shucks, no twitter updates.


My room-mate tried to look online... to find out from the electrical company and then remembered her computer was quite offline. I hauled out the real, yellow paper phone-book and blew the dust off.

I kept flicking at dead light switches. Couldn't cook breakfast on stove, so I tried to open the microwave before remembering. It was quite the gong-show in auto-pilot as waking up.

The day the radio died, can't send a message in a bottle.
And yes, that is a tiny hand-cranked music box, very cool

Even had a moment of trying to leave for work as car was in garage, so had to pool with my room-mate. Made it through the day despite the lack of power.

I could charge my cell phone up in the car and check emails too. My ac/dc converter in my car works okay for the laptop too. I usually read paperback books and the weekly newspaper anyway. Paper notebook and pen still work so I could write onwards too.

I groaned hoping the power wouldn't be off for long. Living in the great white north, one usually has a fireplace, just in case. My current house is newer and doesn't. I have had the furnace die once at night.

Coldest night of my life -30C before the furnace repair guy came to fix it.

If I needed to, I could have worn my parka to bed again, and piled on the extra blankets. Still not fun seeing your frozen breath.

Yet, I was more worried about the pipes freezing and bursting in the house if it had been for a few days or if it hadn't been a Chinook warm spell.

Be prepared! Most days, I get my shoes tied

Usually I look things up online, Wikipedia or tech forums for extra knowledge or trouble-shooting. I've even been known to call my wise parents for advice from time to time. No connection there, though I do have a number of resource books, even a survival guide somewhere on my bookshelf.

This led me to a more annoying question of why I only had  maybe half a 72-hour disaster survival kit for me and my room-mate. I haven't needed to go on a long road trip, so haven't restocked my car -- which sometimes has enough dry supplies.

My room-mate grew up on a farm, which most are fairly self-sufficient, even with back-up electrical generators and a huge gas-tank. There was plenty to eat from the half-acre vegetable garden, root cellar, and firewood chopped too. So she wasn't too worried.

Besides, there is plenty of "no cooking" required recipes, so we would have made do. Petroleum jelly and a tin-can in the ground will cook a foil-wrapped potato or can of beans, even a camp coffee pot.

And funny enough, though I know there are 1000's of variations of recipes online, I still have a bookshelf full of cookbooks. 

As slim as an E-reader is for holding a bookshelf-worth
books is far from gone from my house

I was for a lack of what to do... but my room-mate reminded me -- she was happy enough curled up in a blanket on the couch -- as a bit of a Luddite, she doesn't get stuck on Facebook anyway. Happily she sat there with a book and I had to agree, it was nice and quiet.


Remembering people yesteryear did without much of our modern conveniences. It did make me think about how people have survived some of the most incredible hardships -- invasions, disease outbreaks, airplane crashes, natural disasters -- even the eastern seaboard took a beating recently with flooding, yet people persevered.

We're very resourceful as a species... from natives able to use every part of a Buffalo, moose or antelope. Building a snow igloo, latrine, or rain shelter is something only military reservists practice on weekends.

I have a ton of respect for traditional native resourcefulness.

Perhaps we've lost some of that knowledge, at least some city dwellers might have, other than boy scouts. From gold prospectors and prairie settlers, to seafarers and space exploration, that will to survive and innovate has gotten humankind through a lot.

Though I use a GPS and Google map directions, somewhere buried in my desk is a real compass (from teenage scouting days) and a provincial atlas of road maps too.

Pretty useful for zombies and all other game hunting eh

I couldn't help but notice watching the Walking Dead, or reading about historical accounts, nobody was lacking from lack of iPad news and app update or Youtube.

It still does make me think I should learn to use a cross-bow and tomahawk for fun. It seemed just as sad to watch relationships, hopes and civilization crumble, as most of our knowledge and literature is migrating to hard-drives and Internet archives.

I know I write this Luddite rant on an electronically powered laptop, but I can live with not having to use a typewriter. Those things tire out the wrists something fierce -- I could barely write an article last time I tapped and dinged for kicks and giggles on the typewriter I found at a garage sale.

Ain't gonna find this boy scout lost...
unless I refuse to ask for diections

In the greater scheme of things... I wonder for all our technology, it's cool to go in reverse on occasion. See how things were done in other centuries and find a simpler way of doing things. Reduce the carbon footprint and all.

Not to go all wonky back to the earth, like hippies or end-of-world nuke spooks, but reduce consumption. Try installing alternatives like power-smart appliances, light-bulbs and up to solar panels and grey-water filters. Even just a rain barrel for gardening, it can be pretty simple.

The power did get restored a few hours later after lunch, so I didn't have to defrost a pizza and cook it for supper, over a fire built out of the phone book.

It did make me appreciate how much we rely on that zappy, arching stuff that comes out of the wall a lot more.

My best-friends to kick-start early mornings

For more reading, check it at:

Worst Case Scenarios (my favourite bathroom reading as some are ridiculous scenarios).

More useful, 72 hour emergency kit building and planning check-list.

And a bug-out kit for the much more hard-core list if the power goes out for a while.

So stock up the duct-tape and water filter pump, but don't head for the hills yet, not until the coffee maker is useless. Even then, take a tin cup and a magnifying glass or something and boil that water somehow! Gotta get my cuppa joe.




Anyhow, as Red Green says, she don't find me handsome, at least my lady finds me handy.

trying to unplug from internets?

Development of paper-thin digital technology by people at University of Waterloo claim will become a cellphone. It likely will make it simpler to stay in touch. While I'm excited to see what newspaper will become, I hesitate about thoughts of a cellphone being so ingrained and small -- like a mp3 player can be shoved into the sleeve of a jacket.

Marketing competes with cellphones capable of Skype cameras, social networking and now even portable video game playing ability. Get it now fresh out of the box.... Hey wait, are we that bored without electronics?

Before I even get started, I have to admit, I play video games on occasion. A laptop is absolutely brilliant invention for me to be writing at a coffee shop or especially when doing interviews.

However, it's becoming the norm to be always connected. Why? It's easier to email details or proposal to read later; text instead because someone doesn't do phone calls. So what if it's urgent or an emergency? Voicemail?

To the point where people seem hard pressed not to compulsively check their email, facebook, twitter and everything else digital. Starbucks, hotels and everywhere else with free wifi are winning customers. I check my mailbox attached to my house a few times a day, email can wait too.

Some claim an iPad is essential for business clientele files and communication. Books and newspapers will never be the same if simply downloadable. Still wonder what will happen when batteries run out or if an electronic gets wrecked in rain?

Will business-people and everyone else be able to exist without their electronics? I was really apprehensive to completely rely on my work and appointment schedule being purely on my cellphone. Still have a paper day-timer and wall calendar. Am I becoming rare soon for thinking so?

Many people plug into their earbuds world and text message on their cellphones when they are done work or on the bus, and everywhere else - it's hard to have a conversation in the real with them sometimes.

It feels like a conversation lasting over five minutes is becoming a lost art. I couldn't start conversations on the bus anymore when I used to do that daily in college, mostly to practice my interviewing skills, but meeting really cool people. Not anymore for the past three years, even when I commuted daily to work.

Heard a recent survey of high-schoolers were unable to deal with not using electronic devices for just one day. One day only and they were overly lonely, depressed, anxious, absolutely bored and listless without their connections; some broke down halfway through the day.

Most probably even got all the homework finished and talked to their parents and friends in the real for the first time in ages. I didn't have a cellphone until the end of high-school. Only because I was training on a bike and out most nights with friends and I liked to check in with my parents. I doubt kids do that now unless forced.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I can check my email on my phone away from the house. It's convenient to text message someone for a few bits of info when I can't talk for long.

There's also an updated law in Alberta being passed for distracted driving -- with a $172 fine for grooming, eating and especially texting while driving. While driving? Is texting more important than safety? This is ridiculous that we're so multi-tasking in life. Can it not wait until a red light? Or ten minutes later when arriving, safely.... it's nuts. I admit I had to drop the habit of occasionally doing that stuff, but amazing to need pass a law.

It sounds dire and maybe I'm over-reacting, but it's becoming harder to stay in touch without computer and e-communication in this future now e-connectivity.

People will learn and adapt. Still, it's nice to actually talk in the real, use a land-line telephone or write a honest to goodness paper and pen letter. I keep meaning to dig out my film camera and shoot through a few rolls for old times sake.

Please do a favour and unplug from the internet and turn off the cellphone and texting once in a while. You never know what may happen or who you might meet. Then again, I guess my blogging would be unreadable, so come back occasionally ^_^

--PLR--

ps... want to hear the irony of the graphic? I found it on google images from a site called hackaday.com in a blog entry called cellphone jamming. apparently illegal and good to know....