Powerless

[vilakins]

I'm down at the library as the storm just took out the power in several suburbs (with a worrying distant explosion.) I have no idea how long it will be out--or indeed whether my PC will be OK when it comes back) so I've been driven out into the weather in search of temporary (and surpisingly cheap) internet access, books to read, and hot food. I hope it's back by the time it's dark or I'll have to make a surprise visit to someone. Sitting in the dark playing 'animal, vegetable, or mineral' holds limited appeal.

Have I mentioned how much I hate weathery weather?

Comments

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Fingers crossed for your PC. And you have, as usual, the perfect icon. Me, I like weather, as long as I'm safe at home. It's just going out in it I hate. But we had to get a generator because the power is off so much out here, so we're never without electricity for more than half an hour or so.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I was happy to stay at home till the lack of power drove me out. Right, the library's closing; I'm off for a hot meal at the mall.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I usually spend power outages reading my flashlight. :)

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Er, by flashlight. My flashlights don't have much of anything interesting written on them. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I doubt my batteries will last that long; I hardly use my torch. I've just borrowed 'Oryx and Crake' by Margaret Attwood to read though. :-(

[redstarrobot.livejournal.com]

You need a hand-crankable flashlight!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I have a LED one I can shake to power up but I like more light to read by.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Eek, hope it's over soon, and that the explosion is nothing serious.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too. :-(

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Many sympathies. I'd not enjoyed our 2 days of power out when it was sweltering hot after one of the hurricanes this year.

I *do* have a battery-powered lantern which held up through two long nights of reading old sf. It's got 4 D batteries and works well for reading.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm back!

I do have a torch I can power up by shaking it but I doubt it's good enough for reading, and a couple of other torches which probably need new batteries. I bought a gas lantern though to go with my camping cooker so I'll be prepared next time; we can read or play board games by that. :-)

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

This (http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=39174523&memberId=12500226) looks very like my lantern, except that mine is yellow and it doesn't say it floats. I've not used the remote control, but can see how that would be handy.

[spacefall.livejournal.com]

Argh, evil weather!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

The power's back on, but I'd like to know what that bang was. Winds are gusting up to 100 kph which isn't nice when you live on the top of a hill.

[trixieleitz]

There's something on Stuff about lighning strikes at your end of the country. Gleep.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

There was a lot of lightning today, which always makes me nervous (my grandfather was once rolled over by a ball of lightning on the gokf course) so that makes sense. None of it was close enough to shake the house though; that's happened before. :-P

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Um, that was 'golf'.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Whenever we have a power failure after a loud bang it's because a transformer blew a 'fuse' generally because the line was overloaded elsewhere. If it's close, it's a very loud *BANG*.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Apparently there were lightning strikes. :-P I'll find out more tomorrow because I'm working for the electrical connections people at the moment.

[entropy-house.livejournal.com]

Maybe something like lightning either hitting the line, or hitting a tree that fell on a line, causing a surge that triggered the safetys.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm hating this rain as well (grumbles). I'm hoping that our suburbs power doesn't go down again like it did a few weeks ago when there was a(nother) big storm. Hopefully your power will be fixed by the time you get home...

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

It was. And I have to walk several blocks to work in this bloody weather so I'd rather it was in the weekend when I can (usually) skulk inside. I have a gust-buster brolly but still. At least you can park by your building. [envies you]

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

We haven't had a power cut for a while (hoping not to tempt fate, but we *do* have many candles just ib case.

Glad you got things sorted.

Gina

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Oh, we do have candles too! I just need more light than that to read, with my bad eyesight. Right, time to cook a hot dinner, vege frittata with chili, I think. :-D