Black Out

Well we have been having some rain for the past 2 days. Yesterday evening we finally got heavier rain fronts moving through the Antelope Valley. For most part it was pretty uneventful. Well that changed at 2.05 am. I was about 10 minutes into watching DS9 episode 'Destiny' when a fairly heavy rain front moved in and the rain was coming down fairly heavy. I grabbed my Blackberry and started tweeting about it. I had about 1/2 of my tweet finished when the power went out. Well that certainly didn't deter me from finishing the tweet. I just had to type the last hash tag, when Daisy came walked up to me, as she really doesn't like the high pitched beep of the smoke alarm. So I got up... without power the electrical recliner doesn't go down by itself, so I climbed out of the recliner without knocking over the side table with the soda on it and moved towards the kitchen. I bumped first into the fan and then into the coffee table. When I got to the kitchen Kenny came out of the master bedroom using his cellphone as a light. I went into the laundry room and grabbed the flashlight.

I remembered that in on of the drawers should still be a lighter... a leftover from the days when I used to smoke. I found that lighter fairly quick and light one of the candles in the living room. Kenny went back to bed and I was tweeting about the blackout. This blackout was different than the once we had before. Usually we only loose the power on the hill, that we're living on. This time Sierra Colony and all properties along Sierra Highway were without power as well. I tweeted that sitting in the living room by candlelight might be romantic, but is really boring.

Right after that it hit me that I had a fully charged iPod... so I went over to the entrance, grabbed my iPod, laid down on the couch in the living room and was listening to music.

About 1/2 hour into the blackout I saw lightening strikes going down over Sierra Pelona. I watched it from our back porch, and since the ground had already gotten a good soaking I didn't have to worry about the lightening strikes causing wildfires. By 3.10 am the smoke alarm started beeping, what was driving Daisy crazy and the power came back on.

I killed the candle and went to reset all the clocks in the kitchen, when we lost power the second time. Once again I was standing in the dark... luckily I left the flashlight on the kitchen counter. I grabbed the flashlight and reignited the candle again. The second blackout only lasted for about 5 or 6 minutes. After that we kept power.

Living pretty much out in the boonies blackouts aren't that uncommon, especially not during late fall and winter. It always amazes me how an minor event, like looses power, is turning out to be quite an inconvenience and how much we in fact take electricity for granted.

There is a lesson to be learned here: If rain is expected to move in make sure that your cellphone and your iPod are fully charged. The cellphone is your only remaining connection to 'civilization' and the iPad is the one thing that keeps you entertained during a blackout!!