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We Don’t Need No Steenkin’ Electricity!

Oh, I am such a fibber.

YES WE DO.

We especially need electricity on another hot hot hot day after spending the third of three hot hot 12-hour agility trial days running around in endless activity.  A brownian motion woman, that was me, unless you count those times of intense activity, in which case I guess I was just going orbital, atom-wise.

(Yah, there would have been doggy video today, but no…since the electricity came back on moments before I’m about to fall face first into that nice soft bed, it’ll happen another time.)

I used to get along without electricity pretty well.  These days?  The office is everything, and the office is one giant electrical field.  The health support stuff is everything, and it takes a working fridge.  And coming home from that trial in all that hot when you’re a person of compromised thermoregulation and all the ice water from the day is gone…

Well, I took a cold shower.  REALLY cold, since we have a hot-on-demand water heater, meaning there was none in reserve to take the edge off.  And I hosed DuncanHorse off; he hasn’t been doing well in this heat and with the vaccines he got this past week.  And I made a list of the things I wanted from the fridge for food and then made a strategically swift  snatch and grab for dinner.  I might have whined just a little.

Also, while it was still daylight, I transcribed the handwritten story pages from time I snatched at the trial into the netbook, and added a bit too it.  *muse smugly pats self on back*

Coulda been worse.  The cable could have stayed out once we got the power back.

What do you do when the power’s out at your place?

 

 

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2012 at 04:00 and is filed under Behind the Scenes, Land Keeping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

  • Heather Dryer

    Last night we gathered in my son’s room, the three of us and Topper. He keeps his room the coldest in the house so for the first 45 min it wasn’t miserable lol. Hubby read a book on his tablet, son used my iPhone to watch online videos and I used his netbook to play card games. After about an hour it was too hot to stay so we moved out to my car, cranked it up and ran the AC to cool us all down (including Topper). Five minutes after getting in the car the power was back lol.

  • Crysta

    Ours doesn’t usually stay out long enough for us to have to find something to do. But when it does… if it’s day time it’s no big deal. Read a book. Go for a drive (if the roads are clear). If it’s already dark there’s not much we can do other than wait. Even our stove is electric so if there’s no power, there’s no dinner either unless we eat it cold.

  • Tina

    We lost power at work this week. We stuffed 550 letters by hand, sealed and stamped them, and just as we were about to leave the power came back on.

    At home I read until it gets dark. The last time it really mattered was during football playoffs. Luckily, my mom’s house is 20 minutes away, on a different power grid. She was out of the country, but the rest of the family went there to watch the game. Since I heat with wood I wasn’t even cold. There was one horrible winter when I had to drive three towns over to find a sports bar with a generator.

  • http://www.doranna.net Doranna

    Heather, I thought about going for a drive to use the car AC–figuring some excuse. But since it was Sunday PM, not much was open…and I’d been gone for three days so falling-over tired, plus so much to be done! Dealing with the hot house/no stove/laundry etc wouldn’t have been that difficult if we weren’t exhausted, sweaty, hungry, and had a crapload of dirty clothes! Heh. I think we did stayed nice and constructive under the circumstances…

    Crysta–the daylight thing is a big issue, that’s for sure. I have candles and a candle lamp, plus the barn headlamp–the last time the power went out it was well into dark, and I confess I used it to steal some reading time in bed.

    Tina–stuffing letters sounds like the perfect filler for no-electricity time! But that one winter you mentioned sounds…trying…

  • http://texbrandt.com/blog Robert

    Anything above about 76 degrees in the house and I would be in trouble within a couple of hours. Which means if the power goes off in the summer here in Texas I need to get to someplace cool pdq. In cooler weather we could get by for awhile, it’s just inconvenient because no electric means no bi-pap machine so I have to try to sleep sitting up in my recliner.
    Before the health issues of the last few years it was not so much a problem.

  • http://www.doranna.net Doranna

    Robert–yes, you know what I mean about the thermoregulation thing–though I can absorb the occasional insult, even if I’m not highly functional during that time frame. This weekend was way too much borderline hot to be followed by no coolth! That cold shower sure helped a lot though. :/

    Do you have contingency plans if the AC goes out in the heat? Grocery stores, library?

  • http://www.elizabethmoon.com Elizabeth

    No power–different strategies depending on weather. In the hottest, I used to put about four inches of water in the tub, roll in it to get wet, and walk around inside in the shade. (don’t even ask. You know.) Then re-wet, repeat, over and over. I was younger, though. Now it’s “look for a town with working power and go to a movie” time when it’s over 101 or so. If it’s cool enough, sit in the shade with feet in a pan of water, and water to splash on pulse points now and then. If it’s cooler than that, and heat’s not a problem, then daytime is for cleaning, dishwashing (gas hot water heater), reading, photographing, writing by hand (when hands aren’t too sore), knitting…pretty much anything but computering. If it’s cold (and though our heat is propane, it’s a central system which means it needs electricity for the blower and won’t run without it), it’s bundling up time. Double-checking house temp as it drops to be sure indoor pipes aren’t in danger of freezing. That’s very rare…though ice storms will knock the power out pronto.

    Night–bedtime’s when it gets dark. We have candles & oil lamps but use them sparingly, and flashlights of course for getting from A to B.

    Would be getting some solar panels for emergency power (thermostat & blower of heating, a few lights, fridge & freezer) if we weren’t having to redo our son’s mouth–very large dental bills in progress.

    Food in fridge and freezers is the big worry, of course. We keep a several-weeks supply of stuff we can eat out of the can, jar, or packet without cooking, but the good stuff is frozen.

  • http://www.doranna.net Doranna

    If this had lasted any longer, I would have resorted to the old “stick my head under the hose every so often” trick. That presupposes water, of course.

    Boy, do I hear you about the freezer worry. This is the first time ever that I’ve had one (a little 5cu’ for the critter raw food), and it was one of the first things that came to mind. After the, “But I’ve been hot all weekend and I wanted to feel luxuriously cool!” whine. ;>

  • Marilyn

    When our power goes out, it usually means there’s a hurricane mucking about in the Gulf, as TS Debby is doing right now. It means making sure the gas tank is full so that if we need to get outta Dodge, we can do so. It means making sure we have water for 2-3 days, and food in a car fridge so that I don’t have to open the main fridge or freezer for ANYTHING. It means dragging out the two solar-powered ventilators I bought so there’s some air movement. It means debating, once again, if there are enough financial corners I can clip to put in the back-up generator and solar electrical that I want. (Dang those federal and state credits are attractive! But I have to have to price up front, and THEN I get it back later!) Not to mention a back-up battery (cheaper than whole house) for my Bipap. And since I have at least one senior dog who doesn’t do well in the heat, it means worry about where I can take her to get cool.

  • http://www.doranna.net Doranna

    Wow, Marilyn, you sound pretty darned prepared.

    We pondered solar stuff when we moved here; didn’t have the bucks. But shoot, we’re in the southwest. How can we NOT have solar or wind power? One day…

  • Marilyn

    Doranna, I lived here for 39 years before I ever had to evacuate — and that was for Katrina in 2005. I still haven’t figured out why, when we were hastily packing, I took eight cardigan sweaters. I mean, c’mon. It’s AUGUST! In the deep South. Still, our priorities were us, the dogs, the dogs’ crates, and my computer with my writing and research. All else on a space-available basis. So now we have a list. And most of the preparedness came from all the mistakes made during that evacuation.

    We did better three years later for Gustav. I will say, you know true friends when you can call ‘em at 2a and say, “Hotel won’t take the dogs,” and the response is, “We have a spare bedroom. Cats will have a fit, but they’ll get over it.”

    I’m terribly envious — a friend called this week to say they ARE doing a 20 kw system with a back-up generator.

  • http://www.doranna.net Doranna

    I am in awe that you *own* eight cardigan sweaters!

    Similar priorities, for sure.

  • Sue Farrell

    No electricity? Well, in the summer we can survive for a while here in northern Minnesota and just hope it’s not too long so all the stuff in the freezer stays frozen–cook on the charcoal grill. But in the winter it’s another story, if it’s really cold, because no electricity means the furnace can’t come on and if it’s below zero it can get cold in the house pretty darn fast. But I think the worst is the lack of pump means no water so I’ve finally learned to keep some bottled water on hand just to drink when the pump goes out—seems like everyone is immediatlely thirsty.

  • http://www.doranna.net Doranna

    One thing I don’t like about the pellet stove is that it takes electricity. I’d love to have a wood stove backup, even if it was stuck away in a back room where we’d have to gather–but there’s really no room for it anywhere, never mind the $ of getting it in.

    We keep bottled water on hand and 20 gals of flushing-type water. It’s Duncan I worry about the most when stuff like that happens. In the summer, he needs lots of water and the community well, such as it is, doesn’t pump without electricity–once the reservoir is gone, so is the water. In the winter, he needs the water to NOT be frozen! I can do a lot with solar, but there are some days…

  • http://texbrandt.com/blog Robert

    Since we have two AC systems in the house we don’t have to worry about losing all our cool unless the electricity goes off. If that happens we will go to my mother in laws house which is only eight miles away. If she too is without power then we will likely go to the nearest hotel that has power.

  • Woman with Four Cat Children

    If the power goes out at my house I’m generally grateful I have a laptop with a decent battery. Inevitably I have to look up the power company’s number. Then I watch my husband get frustrated with the mouse pad on the laptop, take it away, and do stuff for him.

    I tend to wander from room to room flipping switches and wondering why the ceiling fans don’t work. Then there’s that ‘duh’ moment and I feel stupid until my husband does the same thing.

    The cats look at us like how dare we complain, they’re the one’s with the fur coats.

    We spend time being grateful for working toilets since when we were in (very) southeast TX we had a well and if there was no electric you couldn’t run the water or you’d have to reprime the pump once the electricity came back on. That generally took all the water we could buy at the store and involved lots of cursing and yelling since it all takes place in 103 degree heat plus humidity.

    We light the oil lamp I have for emergencies since cats and candles don’t mix well. And when the power comes back on we go around turning everything off again, resetting clocks and breathing deep sighs of relief.

  • http://www.doranna.net Doranna

    Candles and cats, oh my!

    Our power company has a system that depends on your landline to give you an accurate recording & estimate. I called once from my cell phone and got a report from who knows where. Our landline is vonage, and goes out when the electricity does…

  • Marilyn

    Actually, the sweaters are cardigan-style. They’re light-weight cotton, and mostly all I need during what passes for winter Way Down Yonder.

    Our power company has a similar set-up, which is one reason we’ve stuck with Dear Old Ma Bell for landline. After Katrina, there were people who still didn’t have phone service in non-flooded areas 8-10 months later. Ma Bell was still working for 3 days after the storm hit… and was back up by the time we were allowed to return. Took them an additional 10 days to get Internet back on, but considering the damage…

    Oh, and FYI, on the hotel chain which wouldn’t take the dogs? I wrote a formal letter of complaint, noting that in an evacuation, you don’t HAVE a choice about leaving your pet. Within six months, the no-pet policy of that chain was gone.