13 Hours Without Electricty

Yesterday, there was a major storm in in the Bay Area. My power went out a little before 8 am, before I got out of bed, and it was out in my house until about 9 pm. One funny thing was that my whole neighborhood had their power restored about 2 pm, while the power on our little street wasn't fixed until 7 hours later. Here are some lessons that I learned:

1. Make sure you know where your flashlights/candles/batteries/matches are. I knew where everything was, but my husband had to ask me for batteries to replace the dead ones in the flashlight he used. Later he wanted to light more candles and he had to ask me where the matches were.

2. Have some food on hand that does not require electricity for preparation. I'm lucky that I had some chicken salad and bread that I had made the day before. I had yummy chicken salad sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, and snacks.

3. If using candles, don't leave them unattended and don't get too close to the flame! I accidentally melted the sleeve of my fleece jacket by getting too close to the heat.

Other things I discovered is that I depend on electricity A LOT to keep my entertained. I worked a few hours in the morning on my laptop, then the battery went dead. I rolled some of our loose change and then I did some reading. By 4 pm, I was pretty bored and it was getting dark! For the last 20 minutes or so, I played a game on my cell phone while waiting for my husband to come home. He brought take out and then we went to see a movie, which we had already been planning on doing. When we got back, our power was restored!

Read about Baglady's storm experience in San Mateo.