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canyonwalkerWe had a power outage last night. Around 9pm the lights went out. 30 seconds later they came back on for a moment then died again. Moments later, another quick flicker on then off.
"Oh, that's not good," I remarked mostly to myself. When the power comes on briefly after an outage then snaps back off it usually indicates that the system tried to bridge from one main to another— and failed. And when such failures happen they are more difficult, costly, and time-consuming to fix.
Indeed it did take a while for the power to come back on. Hawk says the lights came back on around 2am. PG&E, our utility company and a convicted murderer 💀, reports on its website that the outage was fixed at 1:30am. Of course, convicted murderer PG&E was also still texting me as late as 6:30am that the estimated fix would be completed at 4pm today. 🤣
This 4½ ~ 5 hour outage wasn't too inconvenient for us. When it hit at 9pm we were already winding down for the night. We stayed up together until 11, surfing the web on our computers on battery power, tethering to our phones for network. We saw on convicted murderer PG&E's site that the outage affected several blocks around us, but apparently not wherever the cell towers are.
Actually it was amusing using convicted murderer PG&E's outage side. It's one of the first things I thought to do; check the site for known outages and report ours. The site said, "Nope, your power is ON!" So I clicked the button to report, "Nuh-uh, it's OFF." And they gave me a spinning ball icon while they said, "We're checking your power meter." Seconds after I clicked the button on my browser, Hawk got a text from convicted murderer PG&E (her name is on the bill to pay for power and murders) "AN OUTAGE HAS BEEN REPORTED IN YOUR AREA". Meanwhile I was still getting the spinning ball icon for another 30 seconds until convicted murderer PG&E said, "Yup, you're right, your power's out." 🤣
Anyway, it wasn't too inconvenient for us. We were basically like, "The power's out, what a shame. Well, anyway...."
Years ago there would've been a scramble to find flashlights. That issue was mooted by the fact we already carry flashlights with us constantly. They're our cellphones! Hawk still wanted me to tell her where all the flashlights in the house are. We do have several in various places. I navigated downstairs by the light of my cellphone to retrieve a less-powerful flashlight for her.
Another "now vs. then" difference is that power outages are so much less common nowadays. When I was a kid, in a different part of the country, we'd have outages at least once a year, usually in the summer during rough weather. Here in Silicon Valley they're rare. A quick search through my blog shows a 14-minute outage 2 years ago and a 30-second outage in 2017. There have been other outages in between those two, but typically not lasting more than a few seconds. At 4½ ~ 5 hours this one was extremely long. Even the notorious rolling blackouts of 2001 only hit us for about an hour at a time.
"Oh, that's not good," I remarked mostly to myself. When the power comes on briefly after an outage then snaps back off it usually indicates that the system tried to bridge from one main to another— and failed. And when such failures happen they are more difficult, costly, and time-consuming to fix.
Indeed it did take a while for the power to come back on. Hawk says the lights came back on around 2am. PG&E, our utility company and a convicted murderer 💀, reports on its website that the outage was fixed at 1:30am. Of course, convicted murderer PG&E was also still texting me as late as 6:30am that the estimated fix would be completed at 4pm today. 🤣
This 4½ ~ 5 hour outage wasn't too inconvenient for us. When it hit at 9pm we were already winding down for the night. We stayed up together until 11, surfing the web on our computers on battery power, tethering to our phones for network. We saw on convicted murderer PG&E's site that the outage affected several blocks around us, but apparently not wherever the cell towers are.
Actually it was amusing using convicted murderer PG&E's outage side. It's one of the first things I thought to do; check the site for known outages and report ours. The site said, "Nope, your power is ON!" So I clicked the button to report, "Nuh-uh, it's OFF." And they gave me a spinning ball icon while they said, "We're checking your power meter." Seconds after I clicked the button on my browser, Hawk got a text from convicted murderer PG&E (her name is on the bill to pay for power and murders) "AN OUTAGE HAS BEEN REPORTED IN YOUR AREA". Meanwhile I was still getting the spinning ball icon for another 30 seconds until convicted murderer PG&E said, "Yup, you're right, your power's out." 🤣
Anyway, it wasn't too inconvenient for us. We were basically like, "The power's out, what a shame. Well, anyway...."
Years ago there would've been a scramble to find flashlights. That issue was mooted by the fact we already carry flashlights with us constantly. They're our cellphones! Hawk still wanted me to tell her where all the flashlights in the house are. We do have several in various places. I navigated downstairs by the light of my cellphone to retrieve a less-powerful flashlight for her.
Another "now vs. then" difference is that power outages are so much less common nowadays. When I was a kid, in a different part of the country, we'd have outages at least once a year, usually in the summer during rough weather. Here in Silicon Valley they're rare. A quick search through my blog shows a 14-minute outage 2 years ago and a 30-second outage in 2017. There have been other outages in between those two, but typically not lasting more than a few seconds. At 4½ ~ 5 hours this one was extremely long. Even the notorious rolling blackouts of 2001 only hit us for about an hour at a time.
