Blackout!

I was a bit miffed this morning when I turned on The Today Show and saw it had been preempted by local news coverage of the approaching Big Storm.

Surely the preemption would only last 30 minutes or so, but no--it lasted 2 hours. I think.

Not a good time to do it, the day after the Iowa caucuses, when I was eager to hear what all the NBC talking heads had to say about last night's fun and games.

With no Today Show to watch, I settled in the recliner with Chunk to watch something recorded the night before.

Then it happened. The TV went off. Damn, I thought. The wind must have hit a cable transformer somewhere. Owell, I would work on the computer. The wind howled and I began to get a bit nervous about having the computer plugged in, so I decided to turn it off.

Five minutes later, the power went out. I felt very smart to have had the foresight to turn the power off.

I wasn't upset. Just a minor irritation. I wondered how long it would take to get the power back on again.

I settled in for Chunk's morning nap and I listened to a podcast of Says You that I hadn't heard before. Then I watched Ann Curry's reporton Darfur, which has been on my iPod forever. Then I watched a PhotoShop tutorial.

By now I was wondering what the battery life of the iPod was. The power was still not on.

I was starting to go thru withdrawal. We could still use the stovetop, because though it starts electronically, it has gas, so with a camping flint thingy, I could heat up coffee. I could call in to Utterz and send reports on how things were going (if anybody cared). I could even read, tho the light was dim. But as the afternoon wore on, I was very definitely going through media withdrawal.

Finally at 3 p.m. I tried calling the newspaper, but the "circuits were tied up." I couldn't stand it and went for a ride.

At least in the car I had the radio and learned that there were 70 mph gusts near Lake Tahoe, that I-80 was closed and Cal Trans actually issued a warning that said that if anyone tried to get to Lake Tahoe, they would be putting their life in danger.

I went downtown and saw that there were pockets where there seemed to be electricity, but a huge part of town was without power.

I returned home and tried to read by the fading light.

I was supposed to review La Cage aux Folles tonight, but I called the theatre and learned it had no power either, so they were canceling opening night.

I gathered lots of candles and lit them. I called in yet another report to Utterz. I sent e-mail by cell phone to a few people whose e-mail addresses I knew.

Walt went and bought new batteries (he had to try two stores because the first was out. The second was Ace Hardware, which also had no power, but which was letting people in if they brought their own flashlights to search the shelves and if they would pay by cash or check.

This was quickly becoming a "happening."

By the time the sun set, I had heard that PG&E was estimating that it might be 9 p.m. tomorrow before power is restored. I began to think about Funny the World.

Since it was essentially dark at 5 p.m., and since we couldn't do anything, we decided to go out for dinner and maybe take in a movie, if one of the movie theatres had power.

As we drove downtown, it was like the height of rush hour. Bumper to bumper traffic because, of course, all the traffic lights were out and so getting through an intersection was a very slow proposition. Also street lights were out on a lot of streets.

The restaurant we were headed for had a line of people out the door, standing in the rain. So did a lot of other restaurants (obviously we were not the only people without power who decided to go out to dinner!).

We finally found Noodle City, where the wait time was only 5 minutes and we had not only enough food to fill us for dinner, but enough to take home for breakfast or lunch tomorrow, too.

By the time we finished, it was too late to go to a movie, and I had been thinking of Mishka's cafe, where we could get ground coffee so I can make coffee in our French Press tomorrow morning. More importantly, Mishka's has free wifi and I could write an entry of Funny the World, which I have now done. I'm not going to add photos or update most of the stuff I update every day (and have no way to put together the video I took today), but by golly, there is an entry.

Being compulsive is really a challenge.

I'm not sure when we'll have power and if there is no entry tomorrow, it's because I somehow couldn't get to free wifi (in fact, we are driving Jeri and Phil to the airport tomorrow, so that's a distinct possibility).

But there is no power at my home and by golly, I have posted a journal entry.