Well, last night our power went out from sunset to about 10 PM.

No big thing, right??

Do you think I could find anything except the pocket flashlight I usually carry?

Nope.

I hunted and hunted for camp lanterns, matches, batteries, a bit of cash to buy some, etc.

These things were nowhere to be found.

I'm near the end of my work week so even my car only had enough gas to make it to the gas station that also had no power and no way to pump fuel or sell batteries, etc.

At home I either found batteries that were dead or the wrong size for the thing that I wanted to use or I couldn't find the things that would make thing lots nicer.

I finally found and used an old (now used for decoration) antique oil lamp my mom gave us years ago.

It still had a bit of oil in it, so it gave some general light, that I didn't have to hold.

When my wife finally got home, things got better.

She knew exactly where our wind-up radio, camp lantern, camp stove and everything else was.

I am happy to report that I would have survived... but when you came to rescue me (if Abby didn't come home) you would have found me in the dark with a small oil lantern...but safe, warm dry, comfy and fed.

With her coming home from shopping, you would have found me listening to the wind-up radio, or reading a book, in comfort and light.

By-the-way, what ever happened to all the entertaining variety shows, murder mysteries, comedy hours, murder mysteries, etc. they used to routinely have on radio programs?

Some of those sorts of things are available online, but my computer wouldn't work either.

I couldn't even find, Dr. Laura or any of those "pathetic-relationships" call-in radio programs.

The best I could find was Dave Ramsey's "get out and stay out of debt" talk show.

He has some good points to make about getting out of and avoiding being so far in debt that one's options are none existent.

After this small wake-up call (as if Japan wasn't enough) I think I'm also going to keep my gas tank full or at least 3/4 full as a habit.

I'm looking to get a small automatic solar panel and maybe a small generator hooked up to our natural gas line so I can keep some batteries charged and some LED lights so I don't have to worry about finding dead batteries or finding gasoline for a generator.

That way (after I get that all put together) in an extended power outage, we can still party in some degree of normal.

I find all this interesting, because when I go sailing, I always think about redundancies and the "what ifs" of it all.

That has served me well when something un-expected breaks or when I'm cruising and find myself in an unexpected gale and have to hang to a sea anchor for eight to ten hours or when there's no wind and my main engine quits.

How's your place, heat, light, food, light, etc. in an outage, if we want to party and survive there????

Inquiring minds need to know this stuff....

hmmmmmmmm???

we've got little LED "nightlights" that double as flashlights so they are always charged, and turn on automatically when the power goes out. The charger they sit on is the nightlight. Pretty neat. Got one on each floor. They discharge about 6-8 hours of continuous use, but it's enough to get all the long-term outage supplies organized.

As we're pretty versed with hurricane induced outages (power, water, transportation), most of the stuff to survive (gas camp stove, radio, water jugs, etc.) is on a shelf in garage at eye level.

The family has had to go 4 days with no power/water (but the weather was absolutely perfect for those four days - cool temps, sunny, almost like a vacation) so far, and we did quite well eating food out of the fridge as it defrosted.

We had water because we knew the storm was a-comin' so we plugged/filled up all the bathtubs in the house for wash water, and filled up 3-4 water jugs (5 gallon) for drinking/cooking.

Also, I think Eton makes a radio/cellphone charger/flashlight that has a little hand-crank that keeps it running (about 15 seconds of cranking gives you about 1/2 hour radio)

During and after Hurrican Ike when we were in Texas (~3 years ago), I knew where the flashlinghts were, and we used my Crawfish cooker/gas burner for hot food. Water was on and the hot water worked also-gas water heater.

I'm well prepared. I have ammo, lots and lots of ammo. in the event of total social collapse I'll just take what y'all have.

every time I go to the auto parts store (not that often anymore) I buy two of those $2.99 LED flashlights. They're awesome and even come with batteries. I've washed a couple of them and both survived. I've got them everywhere (truck/car/rv/bedroom/kitchen)...of course, the next time I need one, I won't be able to find it. I normally use them walking the dog at night.

Then there's the RV. I have the RV setup where I keep at least 1/2 tank of propane in it for showers and cooking. I try to fill the gas tank up on my return home from regattas so the generator has some fuel. I can soon back-feed a couple of circuits in the house with the generater from the RV too (keep the fridge cold, power the blower on the wood stove, and/or light up the internet gateway and router if that service is still working). The trick is to keep everything running on the RV (I'm trying to use all the systems more regularly).

Starting this week?

Dude, sounds like you've got a good lady.

Go buy her some flowers, and a bottle of her favorite beverage, and then sit on the couch and let her pick the tv channel, just because.

Next time the power goes out you wont have to worry about radio shows, you'll have better things to do.

Errr yeah. It's the winter prep that I apparently have a problem with. I'm on my second leak repair tonight but need more parts. I'm worried that I'm going to have to replumb the whole thing because of the crappy way they connected PEX back then. I fix one more leak and if another pops, I'll just have to borrow your shower for spring fever! This last repair is probably pointless given that I haven't gotten near full pressure yet.

hopefully you're talking about the potable water and not the poopy-system...

We live right on the Earthquake Fault in the Seattle area. We have a generator, food, water, camping gear, battery and hand crank lights, radios's and a 12gauge pump. All set. Power outages are common here.

If it was poopy-system, I would drive it to the heap,leave the keys in it, and thumb a ride home.