Posted By: tomthouse
Are you (a bit) prepared???? - 04/14/11 02:01 PM
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???
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???