There's a nasty storm blowing through the Bay Area today. At first the reports had it that the worst impact would be up by Napa, where flooding is always a problem with heavy rains. But no, instead we got nailed with a bunch of power outages, including one Chez Lux.
As I was driving back home from work I saw some flashes of lightning and hear reports of a few small outages, but didn't think much of it until I pulled off Highway 92 onto El Camino Real and BLAM! out went the power. I was passing by a Safeway at the time -- one moment it was all lit up, the next moment nothing but a few emergency lights. A bit shocking, but also kind of neat to watch. You don't get a front-row seat to the show like that very often. It seemed to be a fairly localized outage, because everything was still lit up as I pulled up to my intersection, but as I was waiting to make the left turn onto my street, POOF! More blackness. Not quite so cool; we have plenty of candles & energy bars in the emergency kit (plus a propane grill), but I really wasn't in the mood for trying to make a hot meal under the circumstances.
Instead, I drove a few more blocks until I found a parking space, called Scott, and found an open restaurant for a bite of dinner. The lights were still out when I got home, so I changed into jeans, grabbed a flashlight and my laptop, and moseyed over to Starbucks for some coffee, electricity, and Internet access.
It's not quite the evening I thought I was going to have, but it could have been a lot worse.
Comments (3)
Strangely, it sounds like a fun evening: a lights-out show, dinner out, and then a cafe visit with your laptop.
BTW, I have major laptop envy - you can't hit any cafe where I live without seeing a variety of models out - it's almost like a techie showcase. The guy I sat next to at the last cafe I went to left his Vaio notebook sitting next to me while he went outside for ten minutes to talk on his cellphone. He seemed utterly unconcerned about me - um, I mean, *someone* - stealing his nifty notebook.
But I digress. I live near you but not too near - the storm hit hard and freaked me out. I removed the hummingbird feeder from the balcony, battened (sic?) down the hatches and waited for the cable internet/TV service to cut out. It didn't, much to my surprise. Quite a storm, though...
Posted by Sour Duck | February 27, 2006 9:57 PM
LOL! That must be great when a 'Safeway' poofs out. Any word on whether it was the 'terrists!'?
Posted by Neil Shakespeare | February 27, 2006 9:57 PM
There were at least 4 laptop users in that Starbucks last night, I suspect we were all from the blacked-out areas.
The lights went back on a little after 11PM; just in time for us to re-set the alarm clocks and finish off the game of Scrabble we'd started. As usual, I lost.
No terrorists, Neil, just PG&E's inability to design a power system that can withstand a winter storm.
Posted by fiat lux | February 28, 2006 11:51 AM