Off the grid: No phone, no light, no internet, not a single luxury

[Inky_Wretch]

Cold ravioli from a can? You don't have a grill?

 

[Stitch]

We were out for almost 5 days last week. Checked into a hotel since we didn't have running water and the one bathtub only holds so much water to flush toilets with.

 

[Starman]

Cold ravioli from a can? You don't have a grill?

Yeah, grilled up all the dogs and burgers in the first day or so. With no place to put the leftovers.

Just returning to the 21st Century for the first time since Saturday night, when surprise storms blew my house back to the 1840s.

After the cell phone went dead early Monday morning, it dawned on me: there ain't a hell of a lot you can do without electric power in our society today once the sun goes down. I have a half-dozen flashlights stashed around the house, but you can only burn through batteries so fast.

Going to bed at 9 p.m. is a bit of an adjustment if you're used to 3-5 a.m.

Yeah, you can go sit in the car and listen to the radio/stereo, but you're burning gas at about a nickel a minute (or risking killing THAT battery too).

While the sun's still up, you can read books. I knew I was keeping those things around for SOME reason. But once the sun goes down, it's time to go to sleep (although I actually got in some quality stargazing Tuesday night. Blacked-out city means less light pollution). Luckily it only got down into the mid-40s and I have plenty of thick blankets.

Breakfast? Cold ravioli from a can. Yummy.

The power company's automated response system ashures me I should come home to a fully powered-up house tonight. But Monday afternoon, they said everybody would be back on line by Tuesday noon. So I ain't holding my breath.

Feel your pain, Starman. After Katrina, at my house we had 6 days with no running water, 3 weeks without electricity and 2 months with no internet. We had a Coleman stove, though, and plenty of fuel, so we could fix hot meals and make coffee. Wasn't fun, but we got by.

Well I am certainly not trying to compare my plight : : to Katrina.

Eating cold ravioli and being off the computer for four days ain't nothing compared to that.

Update: My earlier posts were from work, where the power had been burning bright the whole time. When I left the office at 1 a.m., the electric company's "outage page" ashured me the lights were back on.

Pull into the driveway, hit the garage-door opener. No joy.

Oh well, another night in the middle ages.

So at 3:45 a.m., I rolled over half-asleep in my cold black bedroom.

And the digital clock started blinking.

 

[Bubbler]

I always thought you had a little Ted Kacznyski in you.

 

[imjustagirl]

I'm not kidding: I'm completely incapable of existing like that. I would literally not know what to do. Not the internet/tv thing. But like eating. I'm a completely non-capable person.

 

[Starman]

Seriously, if it was gonna happen, this was probably about the best time it could have happened. It was a little chilly for the season, but not really uncomfortable.

Plus water never went out, so the toilet/shower functions were not a problem. Thank god (although I do live next to a big park with plenty of bushes, so I suspect I could have figured out a solution).

I remember back in the blackout of 2003, power was out for about a day and a half, in 90+ degree heat. It was hot and sweaty for a couple nights, but I grew up in a non-air-conditioned house, so I lived through it. Plus then as now, water was still running, so if things got too sticky, a 3-minute cool shower was always an option.

But if it had happened in the dead of winter, I'd have been forked big time.

You can bundle up in blankets when the house is 45-50 degrees, not so much when it's 10-20 or colder. Plus freezing pipes and everything ... not good.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Cold ravioli from a can? You don't have a grill?

Yeah, grilled up all the dogs and burgers in the first day or so. With no place to put the leftovers.

[\quote]

I meant you could have heated the ravioli on the grill.

My father-in-law lost power for nearly three weeks once thanks to an ice storm. Living out in the country, he was low on the priority list to get restored. Luckily, their heat was on propane so it was dark at night, but warm.

 

[Oggiedoggie]

We lost power for a day and a half after a wind storm about a month ago.

When we lose power we lose running water because we're on a well. It didn't take too long to realise that we could use buckets of water from the pop-up swimming pool in the back yard to flush toilets.

We have a small generator to keep the freezer from turning into soup, but the well pump has a much-higher-voltage 220 motor. Air conditioning is also beyond the generator power.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Just read this apocalypse fiction about what happens to the US when our enemies shoot a nuclear bomb with an EMP on it over the country. Basically, all electronics are wiped out:

 

[Michael_ Gee]

In 1996, our house lost power for three days plus -- the week before Christmas -- due to an ice storm. Starman is right. The house gets uninhabitable real fast when it's below freezing outside. Me and the dog lasted two days while Alice and the kids went to a local motel. Then the last night, he didn't complain about being boarded at a nice warm kennel and I sure didn't complain about the motel and its television, heat, hot water and especially its functioning bar.
In an ice storm in central Mash three or four years ago, again in December, people were without power for weeks. I can't imagine.
I turned the water on at a trickle in every faucet and prayed to the gods of water temperature. Much to my surprise, this worked.

 

[BYH]

Seems like San Diego is about to live Starman Justice, so to speak.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/san-diego-power-outage.html

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Seems like San Diego is about to live Starman Justice, so to speak.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/san-diego-power-outage.html

EMP.