CmdrTaco's Journal: Blacked Out!

So living without electricity for 24 hours isn't my idea of an ideal start to a forced 3-day weekend, but what are ya gonna do? Living without computers & air conditioning wasn't the end of the world. I finished a huge stack of comics, played dominoes with the wife, and listened to more NPR in 24 hours then I do in an average month. We never really were to concerned- our house is on well water (we're in BFE) and has an absolutely gigantic water tank... plus the neighbors up the street actually have a generator (Their basement has a bizarre permanent leak that requires almost constant sump pumping... while that must really suck, they were the only ones with power for miles around!). The worst part of course was the lack of coffee. I have a french press at the office, and didn't think it best to drive. So I made nice & strong black tea, but that just doesn't cut it.

Fortunately the power went up around 4 yesterday, and (fingers crossed) it'll stay that way. Jamie (60 minutes west) had about 60 seconds of brownout. CowboyNeal (10 minutes west) had no problem at all except his cable modem went down for several hours. Meanwhile I was pissing outside to keep the flushes to a minimum. Bah!

Mail server is still down. I probably should drive down to the office and check it out pretty quick. My outbox has like a dozen messages to send.

Today is Animania- U of M's anime club's monthly anime screening. I hope it's not cancelled since it's one of my absolute favorite things about living in Ann Arbor.

Anyway, I'm still not caught up on the pent up queue of things I need to do following 24 hours of forced vacation, and still want to take some of the regular part of this weekend off, so I'm outta here. Hope wherever you are the power remains strong!

Coffee in a blackout

[fm6]

If you need to run a hotplate and there's no power, an xPower device [store4power.com] is indispensible. It's also handy for jump-starting your car, which is why I own one: I'm absent minded about headlights, and the AAA warned me they were going to start charging me for calls. Even without that incentive it's worth the cost, because of the aggravation you save.