We’re dealing with some stormy weather here (Vancouver for me, but it covers a wider area) and so a patchwork of homes across the region are having power outages. Crews are working to restore it
So on that note, what do you like to do?
- ways to prepare, what to buy, a favourite flashlight from !flashlight@lemmy.world?
- how you pass the time
- any stories that come to mind?
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My parents bought this portable power bank and it cones in very handy during these storms (also in Vancouver area). It we can charge devices, plug in a lamp, or even a portable induction cooktop.
That said, during a power outage I’ll mostly play board games, listen to music, play my guitar, or read.
Go to bed early because it’s dark.
Worry about all the food in the refrigerator.
Be hot (or I guess in your case, cold.)
Read books in the daytime, go for walks.
Cook stuff using the grill, drink cold brew.
Take dreadful cold showers.
Count how many socks and underwear are left, do I need to resort to hand washing some?
In order. Turn off the main breaker Turn off the breakers for HVAC and hot water heater Unplugged my car charger Wheel out the generator Power on the generator Plug the generator into my house Put my security camera that can see the street light on one of my screens so I can see when power comes back on. Resume activities
If I can get all that done in less than 10ish minutes my WiFi and computer don’t even power down.
To resume I just unplug the generator and then flip the breakers back to the on position.
Read books. Go to bed early as soon as it’s dark. Empty the fridge if it’s going to be a while longer.
The longest I was without power was as a kid. A winter storm knocked out power lines all over. It was a week before we got power back on, the longest it took for some was 12 days. We had a wood burning fireplace so my parents invited all the elderly neighbors to stay with us. I wasn’t happy about sleeping on the floor while some weird-smelling old person slept in my bed, but looking back now I’m glad my parents modeled civic-minded behavior.
Us kids played a lot of cards and picked fights with each other. Dad had us scooping driveways in the neighborhood and eventually the streets by hand just to keep us active and out of the house. It was not a fun week.
Blizzard of '93?
Nope, no special name that I am aware of. Other than “that bad storm in October that one year”
The storm itself wasn’t abnormally bad, it was the timing and sequence. It was very early so some deciduous trees still had leaves. The storm started with rain, then slush, then it all froze. So tree branches were overloaded with weight and tore down. Oak trees that had survived for a century were downed. Older neighborhoods and towns with power lines on poles instead of buried lines like newer communities would have now had pretty much all lines and poles torn down. Lineworkers from all over the country were brought in to help. I was too young to really follow at the time, but I’m told some of the delay was simply supply chain; getting enough new wires and poles there quickly enough to keep the crews supplied.
Hilbernate. The other half uses the e-reader. Anything e-ink should have incredible battery life.
Can confirm. I generally prefer the comfort of holding a real book but e-readers are a godsend for blackouts and vacations.
I like taking a walk / being outside, because all of the power tools/ leaf blowers/ ac units are shut off and the world is finally quiet
Alas, generators.
Contemplate how close to total collapse we are every day
I recently bough a new flashlight, a Wurkkos FC11C to be exact. It’s pretty good for the price, and it really can’t hurt to have a good flashlight around. I made a post about it in !flashlight@lemmy.world about it, and there are some other posts too.
Playing the piano to pass the time. There’s a certain eeriness that I find quite enjoyable of having the music flow while in nearly total darkness.
This is a cool one I’ll have to try sometime!
Hahaha you should see the outage map of Washington State.
What do I like to do? Nothing, I hate power outages.
What I typically do is I have a large stockpile of candles from an old MLM scheme. I light those and play on my phone if there’s Internet. We have multiple battery banks for these occasions.
If there’s no Internet I will read. Both ebooks and regular books because my attention will shift.
I also try to do something productive like study for something.
Most of all I pile like eleventy billion blankets on the bed because I’m so cold. The furry ones are poor space heaters.
When I was a kid we always played games. Like charades or something. My dad would light the camp stove and we’d entertain ourselves for the evening as a family. They were nice.
I think my last power outage was 30 years ago and i loved it. Lighting candles and playing boardgames. I never even considered that that’s a thing that still happens.
I live rurally and have spent the night without power 3 times in the last 2 months.
It gets old.
I live(d) in Asheville, NC for a decade. I’ve had the power go out pretty often, most recently for Hurricane Helene (4 days for us, and we were on the low end!). Seeing a 24-48 outage is frequent here.
We have our house wired for a generator, so it’s mostly about a cycle of rationing fuel to keep the fridge cold, charge things while it’s on, use water and fill things while it’s on (we are on a well not city water).
Beyond that, reading books, playing handheld games like the Steam Deck, lots of talking. Losing power is not the worst thing most of the time to me.
I am always amazed that power outages are such a common experience in north America. In more than 55 years here in Europe I have experienced exactly two power outages, one that was planned when they were working in the substation for this street, and one incident that took out a whole part of the city for 20 minutes. The latter one was so extraordinary that it made the national evening news.
I have a pair of lanterns which work great to light up a room.
With those on or if it’s daytime, I like to either read or play cards or a board game.
Last outage we had, one of the first things I did was take a hot shower. Our water heater is electric and if it became extended I might not get another chance.
We lost power for 3 days back in 2006. The water heater still had hot water in it when power was restored. It wasn’t piping hot that last day, but was still good enough for a shower. I was quite impressed.
Stare.
