Power to the people…...or not.
As many of you know, we in Northern California experienced a planned two day power shutdown last week, exactly two years after our disastrous fires which destroyed 6,000 homes. The planning and communication of this event by PG&E was inadequate, to be sure. One will never know whether any fires were prevented by this move, but there are a lot of doubts. The predicted high winds never happened. The temperatures were moderate, vs. 100+ two years ago.
Stores were crowded the day before, purchasing non-perishable foods and ice. There were long lines at the gas stations as well. There were no generators to be found. Those purchasing whole-house generators found that it was a case of too little, too late. They must be wired in by a licensed electrician. Solar panels don’t function within the grid when the power is off.
Wednesday morning, stumbling around in the dark, I discovered no internet, because our router was out.There was no coffee! Since I do Partners and Mentors on Wednesdays, I was fortunate to be able to go out to our farm and intrude on our kids, because they had both power and Comcast connection (and coffee).
We made do that evening with sandwiches and were able to read by candlelight. Of course this reminded us how good we have it now. Reading by candlelight isn’t all that great.
Thursday evening we took our neighbor out to Best of Burma after confirming they had power. We had to decline the offer of boxes to bring home our extras. “Ah, I understand” said the waitress. When we got back home the power had been restored.
One unanticipated loss was expensive medicine that requires constant refrigeration. We had some, and I read in the paper that many folks were in that situation.
And what really bothered me was the loss of Google. It has become way too easy to answer any question that occurs to one. Hard to believe that it’s only been around for 21 years. How did we know anything before that?
Did you lose power last week? Have you ever experienced a protracted power shutoff? We once lost power at the farm for 11 days, which meant no water either. It was shortly thereafter that I installed a whole-house generator system. Are you ready for the next shutoff or power loss? Is it likely where you live?
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