The power is out ritual...

@whywiki (6066)
Canada
October 13, 2008 11:11am CST
Last night we walked in the door at 1800 to make dinner and poof out went the power. It was dinner time on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and I am sure many a turkey was in the oven across the city. The guy upstairs came down as we checked the fuses. Step one, it wasn't just a fuse and the whole house is out. Step two we go outside and look for signs of light. There is none but the neighbour kid is outside and we confirm it is at least the whole street. Back inside we go feeling a bit better at least it isn't just us. Step three we head to our car and go for a drive and listen to the radio. We drive up to the top lookout at the mountain and see the city is black. By this time the roads are filled with other people doing the same thing. The lights are all out and we have to revert to four way stops at major intersections. It seems the power being out makes the traffic flow better. The power was out for about an hour then to everyone's delight it came back on. Turkeys were cooked and people ate. When the power goes out in your area how do you handle it?
4 responses
@ElicBxn (63194)
• United States
14 Oct 08
I will look outside and see if the other houses on the street are out. Then I'll make sure that everything is ready in the house. If I want to eat - well I can heat food because I have a gas stove even if I have to light the flame. Then I probably go to bed because I don't really have anything else to do.
@ElicBxn (63194)
• United States
14 Oct 08
going to bed is almost always my solution to any kind of stress, be it emotional or boredom.
@whywiki (6066)
• Canada
14 Oct 08
You are lucky to have a gas stove. I thought at first we could eat out then when we realized it was half the island there was nowhere to go! Gas stove would have been handy. My second thought was to curl up in bed.
1 person likes this
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
13 Oct 08
This will happen to us only once in a great while, usually in the cold winter months, if the snow or ice gets heavy on the lines.. The last time was a couple of years ago, and the power was out for about 12 hours, so I lit a bunch of candles and put thick blankets over the door of one room and all the candles in it and we all dressed in layers and we waited it out. This seems to happen perhaps once every ten years or so.. or a big storm will put power out for a short while.
@whywiki (6066)
• Canada
13 Oct 08
I can remember when I lived in the sticks how the power always seemed to go out in winter storms. We never thought of the blankets on the doors, that would have helped a lot I think. Boy would it get cold!
1 person likes this
• United States
21 Oct 08
I miss our woodstove.. and wish I lived 'in the sticks'!!
@Pose123 (21635)
• Canada
14 Oct 08
Hi whywiki, I heard about the power outage and of course thought about the many people cooking turkey dinners. Since it was only one hour, I guess it wasn't a big deal but imagine if it had been for ten or twelve hours. I'm afraid there would have been a lot of unhappy people. I have experienced up to twelve hours during the winter, and it isn't easy to cope when you have no heat and are unable to cook. I'm glad that you managed to get the turkeys cooked and had a good Thanksgiving after all. Blessings.
@whywiki (6066)
• Canada
14 Oct 08
It was lucky it wasn't longer. I have heard that some people finished cooking there meals on bbq's! I can only imagine how horrible it is to loose power during wartime and not knowing if it would ever come back on.
@chrislotz (8137)
• Canada
13 Oct 08
I was watching the news last night and on it was a story that a lot of cities in the United States had no power on Sunday. I didn't catch the whole story so I don't know which cities were affected but it sounded like it was a big city with thousands of people that had no power. I haven't looked at your profile to see where you live but I am assuming it is probably in the States. If my power went out there would be nothing to do about it but wait it out. I sure hope your turkey turned out okay. I didn't cook one on Sunday as it is only me and my daughter living in this city, no other family members, and since she went to her boyfriends house, I was home alone and no sense cooking one just for me. I sat at home all day and just worked on the computer.
@whywiki (6066)
• Canada
13 Oct 08
I had no idea it happened in the U.S. too. I live in Canada and my first thought was a terrorist attack. Oh how the times have changed. Fortunately I wasn't cooking a turkey either or I really would have been upset.