Black Out

All it takes is a black out to be reminded of how dependant we've become on electricity.

Sunday evening the power went off in our area around 9:15 pm.  The sun had already set, so it was dark outside.  We grabbed a couple of flash lights and lit a bunch of candles.  Then we realized our internet access was affected because the router is powered by electricity.

With no TV, radio or internet to distract us, Hubba pretended to tell ghost stories.  Then he realized the smart phones still worked so he and his buddy compared iPhone and Droid Apps.

It occurred to me while this was going on how much electricity has become a huge part of our lives.

Cooking:  Our stove, oven and microwave are electric.  Even when we had a gas stove and oven they had an electric ignition.

News:  The television is electric, the DSL was probably working, but the router is electric and we haven't had a battery operated radio in years.

Phone:  We did have mostly charged cell phones.  We don't have a house phone, but when we did it was cordless with an electric base.

Light:  We had candles and flashlights, but the alpacascope went dim after a while.  It was kind of fun brushing my teeth by candlelight, but out of habit I flipped the light switch trying to get more light.

Water:  The water heater is gas, but it is controlled by an electric thermostat.

Heating and Cooling: Our house technically has air conditioning and one ceiling fan, both of which are electric.  The heat is hot water/baseboard heat, which is heated by gas, which is controlled by an electric thermostat.

Food Storage:  The refrigerator and freezer are electric.

The power came back on around midnight.  I don't know what caused the outage but it was an interesting period of observation.