The power is out...

[Astoria]

I think I've only had a black out at my house twice and the longest time was maybe half an hour if that. Fortunately my mum has about a million candles so if we ever do get a big black out I'd have enough light to read or draw, stuff like that. Worst comes to worse I always have studying I suppose.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

1st thing: Check my coin meter hasn't run out. If it hasn't, I proceed to the next step.

question: Is it dark out?

Yes: Go to bed

No: Go outside and do something interesting/useful for once.

 

[Bluestorm83]

I suppose I'd wonder why the hell we STILL don't have a generator, despite living in Sandy Zone...

 

[DoPo]

1. I need to get have a candles or and a flash-lights (one of them human powered)

You...you...

...I can't even call you "monster". I know what you are.

Spoiler: Actual pic of Eleuthera

You'll see, some day The One would rise and end your oppressive slavery. You'll see!

OT: I usually try to read if the power goes out. Assuming there is some sunlight outside, I don't like reading by candle or flashlight, though I'll do it if nothing else is available. But otherwise, I'll probably do stuff on my phone.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I'll probably play my acoustic bass, read a book or crack out my Game Boy (Colour, obviously. I'm still living in 1999) and get my Pokemon on. Thanks to the amount of camping my family did and my being in Scouts until I was 16, I'm actually quite well prepared for this (and festivals, which is a godsend). I'll crack out the giant camping lamp we have, it can light up most rooms well enough.

 

[Kinitawowi]

1) Curse. The power goes out regularly at my house - the electricity is on a meter and it means somebody didn't top it up, again.

2) Curse some more. Every time my PC cuts out because of a power cut, it nukes all the internet cookies and I have to go round manually logging back into everything again.

3) If the power is still out at this point (usually by now somebody's put the emergency electric in), grab my DS.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Not long ago the power went off at my house for 3 days. Not just my house, but the power was out in half my neighborhood. The worst part was my house was right on the dividing line between houses that had power and houses that didn't so my neighbors across the street all still had electricity while I had to suffer in the dark.

I'm actually fairly well prepared to live without power though. I live in California, and I have some disaster provisions stored in case of a large earthquake. I have a charcoal BBQ, a propane hotplate, tons of flashlights and candles, canned food, etc. (Yes, I even have guns and knives in case the blackout is caused by zombies, or rioters).

Anyway, the worst part of this whole ordeal however was that at the time that my power went out I had a bunch of papers I had to do for various college classes, and no internet with which to do research. Ended up basically living a a friend's house the entire time so I could finish all my assignments.

At least you were in California, where I'm guessing the temperature was relatively normal.

I live in the Midwest, Indiana to be exact. One winter when I was away living in my on campus university apartment, there was an ice storm that knocked out power for pretty much the whole city and the surrounding area.

1.) It was below freezing for those four days, with only blankets and thick clothes, but eventually those things started to freeze as well.

2.) Handheld gaming power only lasted a day and a half, because it hadn't been fully recharged.

3.) Everybody I knew that had power lived two and a half hours away, so I couldn't got to them. I also couldn't because the university still held classes in the dark, because the ended up moving classes to ones with windows.

At least the professors gave extensions on assignment because of it.

 

[infinity_turtles]

I suppose I'd read a book for an hour and then if it didn't come back on I'd turn on my generator? Bought the thing for hurricanes, but I've only ever had to use it when the Cable company managed to cut power to my block for a few days when they were working on something.

 

[C F]

Well, I'd probably take a bicycle ride around the neighborhood or something.

If the power is still out when I get back, I'll call Florida Power and Light. The automated phone directory will take me to any notifications of maintenance in my area, and hopefully I'll get an ETA for the power's return. If it's a large storm or a hurricane responsible, we hook up the generator.

If the power is out for some other reason, I'll probably go outside and practice swinging a sword around like a lunatic some more. When i get bored/tired of that, I'll read a book.

If the power is out for days on end, I'll bust out the LEGO.

 

[Something Amyss]

I'm willing to bet your iPad could solve that particular problem too.

yeah, but you have to be awake to know that it's screwed up or always rely on your iPad as an alarm.

Though my phone's been my primary alarm for over 3 years now...

In any event, (to the question at hand), I have waaaaay too many books on my kindle and the thing'll last for a week even if I read it constantly (with the light on). I have a tablet for MP3s (My phone is my usual source but it's in for service) and between music and books, I can keep myself entertained for...Well, pretty much ever.

Or I sleep. Depends on my mood and the time of day.

Unless it's like 100 degrees out, power outages are more an annoyance than anything serious for me.

 

[Catfood220]

The last power cut I went through was years ago after lightning knocked the power out, that is a long time ago, it was when my old dog was alive.

If it was on a day like this, I would probably read a book, go for a walk, have a wank, that sort of thing. If other places in town had power, probably hang out there for a bit.

If it was at night, I have candles and a wind up torch. If it was still light, I would read but if it was dark I would probably just have a wank and go to sleep.

 

[hooksashands]

This happened to me Thursday. A box on the power line beside my house ker-sploded and everything went out while I was playing Defiance. Luckily I was crazy tired anyway, so I just laid down and slept until the power company got everything sorted.

 

[tippy2k2]

I can't remember the last time the power went out at my house, but usually I just take a nap and hope its back on when I wake up.

I keep thinking the power is going to go out during these past few days though. Minnesota weather seems to be more pissed off than usual.

!

Hello fellow Minnesotan! How 'bout that skipped Spring? I loved getting snow in freaking May and rain for the rest of the freaking year...

 

[FalloutJack]

As I live in Pittsburgh, most power outages are repaired in about five hours. Dependent on when it all went down, I could be...

{1} Somewhere else, doing something fun.

{2} Reading, because I like to read.

{3} Possibly using my laptop for a while, but I don't want to tax the batteries TOO MUCH, certainly not in a real emergency.

{4} Sleeping. Most people can't just hit the bed and sleep when they want to. They have unbreakable habits that can only be changed if waking time is stretched and then compensated for later. I go in and out at weird times.

 

[Something Amyss]

1.) It was below freezing for those four days, with only blankets and thick clothes, but eventually those things started to freeze as well.

Good lord, I know that feeling. I live in Vermont, and we've had heavy snow do serious damage to power lines before. I don't know about four days, but when it's below freezing, anything beyond one day is torture.

 

[Little Woodsman]

Around here they only happen as brown-outs during the Summer, which always happen in the daytime, or from a line down/power station overload during a snowstorm. Daytime/brown-out, think "This stinks, grab my kid and go out for food/movie/walk on creek path. Nighttime snowstorm/blizzard....this gets a little more involved. Go through the following steps:
1-Reassure kid.
2-open cell phone, use light to locate flashlight. Use flashlight to locate the other flashlights & lantern & batteries for all. Get lantern set up switch to using it for light. Get candles out of closet & set them up in case we choose to light them.
3-Step outside & evaluate if this is something short term or the end of the world. If it is end of the world go back in to apartment & bunker down. (Like many others in this thread, I'm all kitted out for the apocalypse--or you know a couple of weeks w/o power & buried in snow...which given where we live is a statistically going to happen eventually.)
4-If it is *not* the end of the world, when I step outside be mobbed by neighbors who assume that because I have a light I know what is going on/am in charge/am an agent of the apocalypse.
5-Give the following responses to neighbors as appropriate:
--I don't know any more than you do
--Let's try calling the power company
--I'm sure it will be straightened out soon
--youhaveonesecondtostopstaringatmykidyoufreakorIwillgutyoulikeamackerel (joking, most of my neighbors are pretty cool)
6-Call power company and listen to tired employee explain that they know about the situation and have someone on the way and can we please stop calling?
7-Go back inside, find entertainment. Plenty of books/manga/comics, laptop is always kept plugged in so it should have full charge, hand-held games also kept plugged in while at home so they should be fully charged. (Though we always seem to end up reading in a pillow/blanket fort, usually Harry Potter, Urusei Yatsura or Sugar Snow Fairy.)
8-be slightly startled when the lights come back on in less than 2 hours.

 

[Ren_Li]

Long-term, no, I'd be really screwed. But overnight I'd probably be okay.

...I imagine my fiance and I would have far more sexual contact without technology to distract us. And hopefully our DSs and the Kindle would be charged. If all else fails, exercise, then sleep I guess.

I'd go a bit spare if it went on for more than an hour or so though, since I keep tropical fish (and the temperature drops pretty fast without the tank heater on- I'd be unsurprised if it dropped enough to kill them overnight.)

 

[Guffe]

The last 3 days I were at my friends cabin that has no electircity.
So we drank beer, made good food, fished, played games etc etc.
Not too shabby 3 days, nice to be back into civilisation thou

 

[Scarim Coral]

Depending on when the powers goes out. To me this had only happened during night time which for me means an early night in! If it is way too early in the night (7.00pm) then I just lay on my bed and just think about stuff.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

1.) It was below freezing for those four days, with only blankets and thick clothes, but eventually those things started to freeze as well.

Good lord, I know that feeling. I live in Vermont, and we've had heavy snow do serious damage to power lines before. I don't know about four days, but when it's below freezing, anything beyond one day is torture.

Yup. Around day three I was already going nuts and cursing whoever was doing the "repairs", and thinking they were incompetent, not even stopping to realize that it's something that rarely happens in my area of the state, especially the southern tip where my university was.

At least my food kept cold in refrigerator with the power out, since it was so cold. So, it kept my cheap frozen food cold(staple of a university student's diet) but I couldn't cook said food, I was stuck eating really cold sandwiches and snacks that I wouldn't count as meals.