I woke up to no electricity this morning! What do you do?

Our power went out the other day for about 3 hours. I started a fire in the fireplace right away before it got cold in the house, and popped some popcorn in it for my son. Other than that we just hung around.

I live out in the middle of nowhere so, the electricity goes out here all the time. I think if there is a power shortage someplace else, they choose our neighborhood to cut off so that others can enjoy the electricity. It doesn't bother me a bit, I just go fishing :-). We also have a generator. If the power goes off for a long period of time (we always call the power company for an estimated time) we just hook up the generator.

We had one summer of almost constant electricity outings and it was annoying. I hated it because it was so hot, and because I had to break out the candles and find ways to entertain myself all evening which was a pretty difficult task. It hardly happens anymore, but when it does, I try to find some way to entertain myself. Listen to music, read a book, curl up in a big blanket if it's cold, or change to something cooler if it's warm. It all depends on my mood.

We have a kerosene heater to use when and if the power goes out. I also have one of the old coffee pots that you set on a burner. I can set the coffee pot on top of the kerosene heater and make my husband coffee. I also always keep jugs of water just incase of an emergency. I also keep cans of tuna and other no heat foods on hand. I am a planner so I'm never caught unprepared. My candles are sitting out ready to light and the heater is full of fuel. I'm glad your power came back on so fast. Those poor people in Oaklahoma had no power for days. Now that would be rough times.

I hate when that happens, ctry! We truly never know how dependent upon electricity we are until there is a power outage. It has happened to me a couple of times in the past, and I basically do the same as you-wrap up and grab a good book to settle down for the duration. Thankfully, these glitches only occur infrequently. There has been much in the news lately about the people in Oklahoma who have been without power for a week or more. I would be tearing out my hair by now.

Do i just here u say first time wow believe me u guys are very lucky. in my country there is power failure almost every day infact every day, cause if there is light for a whole day infact we will celebrate. so i guess may be i am adapted to the system u know some how.people living in the developed world are really getting something great unlike in africa. not all part of africa u know but the bad ones. some times we might be in darkness for almost two weeks or more. so if u are complaining that first time they took light in your place then what will i say. so just bear it ok and stay cool. well i pray the government should solve ours.

We typically leave the house when the power goes out. The few times it has gone out since we moved back to this area it stayed out for a few hours. Even if we don’t have any money we will go out to the mall or something just to get out of the house. The cold would be bearable, for us the power usually goes out during the summer. A 100 degree house is not fun. As far as no coffee, thankfully there are 2 coffee houses within walking distance that I know are on a different circuit than we are!

If it's during the day and I don't want to be online I just grab a book and settle down in my recliner and read. I have a laptop so it doesn't go off and I can still get on line. When I lived in Kissimmee, Florida our power cables were underground and we still had power during the worst of the hurricanes. I think all cities should put them underground. I hate those unsightly power poles. They are very dangerous during the severe storms we get here. I too would have hated the fact that I couldn't have my coffee. Have a great day, Ho,ho,ho! Merry Christmas

heheh! When the power goes out here, we just play with the battery opperated toys! It doesn't go out here very often either. But i have my daughter to keep my busy when it does. The whole not being able to cook and stuff sucks! and if its out too long the food in your freezer starts to melt, and the fridge stuff starts to go bad. THAT SUCKS. But i can deal with no electronics for a while. its nice to have a little break once in a while even if its forced! My hubby has those hand held games to play when he's bored if the power were to go out! At least when the power goes out in the daytime, you dont need to light a bunch of candles to see where you are going !! I love candles but sometimes the flickering gives me a headache!

We had that problem when we recently moved into a private rented house, it had been empty for a while and its on prepaid meters so the meters had built up a debt and for us to get electricity we had to pay back the debt we didn't even use first. We have had it all payed back but it was very annoying to hear we had to pay off other peoples debt first. I know what you mean about waking up cold, because we had that a while. Having no electricity is managable in the day time, its at night when its worse because of the darkness and that its colder later on at night. ~Joeys wife

Oh that sounds terrible.I don't like that cold weather,that is why i live here in the Houston Texas area,it is cool but not cold.The sun is shining brighty outside and we never lose our lights.We were watching a show on tv last night about someone up North and snow was everywhere,and my hubby commented that he was so happy we lived in a mild climate,of course the people there are adjusted to the weather where you are and we on the other hand are not.I have a friend that lives up North and she loves the snow and all,but she has also lived here and she likes it up there where she is at a lot better.If i had been raised there i know i would like it too,but i am just not adjusted to it.I am happy that you got your lights back on,i would have been frozen by now LOl.

Hopefully my battery on the laptop would be charged so I can still go online. I would be annoyed that I can't get my coffee fix though LOL

I had to smile at your posting. The last tme the electricity went I recall my daughter warning me to iron before I went to bed. I obeyed her and duirng some time of the night it went. Well we wore well ironed clothes to work and school respectively while everyone clamoured about the discomfit they faced. Glad you had a good book and made yourself warm,. I guess we justhave to learn to make the best of it while we have it (electricity) and not to abuse it.

I have never had my electricity go out on me int the winter, only in the summer time. And then it was bad enough, but at least it wasn't cold out. I can't imagine what it would like here if the electricty went out in the winter. Like today it is 30 below with the wind chill. It would get pretty cold in here if it was out for an hour. When I did have my electricity go out before in the summer, I just did like you and read a book. It was pretty hard like you say, no computer, no coffee pot, no TV or radio. Yuk.

It happens all the time in Kolkata (typical problems of a developing nation) so its not a big issue here. But nevertheless, your post got me thinking into something else (my mind has this typically irritating habit of wandering off on its own)…are we better off with all the conveniences of modern living and by how much or were our forefathers more capable than us in the sense that they could look after themselves without much external aid? Here in India, most of us still make our coffee and brew our tea manually. We do a lot of household work manually and yet we do crave for the conveniences that people in first world countries enjoy. And yet, just imagine if I had to go without my tea for a day just because there was no electricity, I could not clean my rooms coz the vacuum cleaner got stuck, I could not take a bath coz the geyser was not working and so on! OMG! The only thing we are severely dependent on is cooking gas but then, should we go back to the forest to collect firewood? I am being self-contradictory, one of those days when I want to write a lot but the words seem to get jumbled up inside my box.

Well when the power goes out here I actually enjoy it LOL no computer, no phone, no tv..its nice and quiet and I can enjoy a good book or do some painting etc etc...In the winter mind you its a bit of a pain or rather use to be but now we have the kerosene heater and a generator should the hydro be out for an extended period of time so thats no issue...In the summer I dont bother over it at all....

Every once in a while we lose electricity.What I usually do is set up my radio with batteries and i get out the candles and flashlights if it is night time.The last time it happened, I had just put groceries away. I had just came in from shopping and I had put the last thing away and boom, no lights.it was evening so I went to my room , got the flashlights and lit some candles. I didn't have anything that I was missing on t.v. and I didn't want to listen to music so I didn't get out the radio.It wasn't cold outside,so it wasn't cold inside either. The lights were off for about a half an hour. Just enough time to mess up the time on the cable boxes and the VCRs. But I do remember two times when it was a adventure when the lights went out.The first time was in July years ago. The lights went out and they were off for hours.I remember sitting on the kitchen counter listening to a t.v movie on my t.v. radio.It was so long ago that there were movies on over the air channels that I wanted to see. The second time was Hurricane Isabella.She it in September a few years back and we were without lights for about 5 days! It wasn't hot but it wasn't cold either.I remember using the daylight and flashlights at night. it was like camping out.I also remember going out of town to a sports bar that had electricity but no water. Because it didn't have water, the fountain drinks didn't work so we were served canned sodas.We went to the sports bar so we could see the football. It was fun.The worst thing was that we had to throw out all the food in the fridge.So now whenever the lights go out and it isn't off longer than an hour, i consider myself lucky.

I switch to my gas stove for my coffee and the rechargeable battery operated tubes are just about enough for the light. If its too cold i'd just tuck into my mink blanket with my woolen socks put on. It always pays when we know how to make do and try not to be too dependent on gadgets.

That's so bad to be without electricity. I always keep my cellphone nearby me when I sleep. So if there is no electricity, at least I can make a call to ask for help. And I can also use it as the portch. I have to make sure that I can have a contact way in such an environment.

well in my apartment too never does electricity goes off.however one day when me and my partner was just about to start our dinner the light went off.since the weather was cool we did not had any problem.there was some maintainece programme going on and because of which all the four apartments in my locality did face tihs problem.i lighted the candle and we had a romantic candle light dinner.its was great.