Filed under: Politics | Tags: camping lamps, candles, Flashlight Batteries
We were without power all day, yesterday. We had no power when we got up around 8:00 a.m. and it was a day of trying to cope. No radio, no telephone, no computer. Made the assumption that it was a broad outage, the city? The county? We had the example from California’s incompetent governor and power outages, and our governor has already been honored with the designation of the worst governor in the country for fiscal management of his state (from Cato’s annual survey of the nation’s governors) The power came back on, 8 o’clock at night — so 12 hours without power.
A drive around the neighborhood indicated that the outage was centered in just our neighborhood, some kind of construction goof-up where they are building a new house. Helps to show you just where your inadequate supplies are inadequate. Battery shortages, out of some sizes, need more kerosene. A generator would be nice, but worth it? I suspect that we are not the only ones unprepared for outages. Because we had assumed that it was a broad outage, city? county?, we should have driven around earlier but didn’t.
Most regions of the country have their own special threats. New York City currently has snow. In a big city that is a guaranteed mess, lots of accidents. Washington State has earthquakes, forest fires, and our own specialty, volcanoes.
We have a long range of mountains with a number of inactive volcanoes, which occasionally awaken, as Mt. St. Helens did a few years back. Most of our spectacular mountains are dormant volcanoes, and slumber peacefully without giving anyone any trouble. California has way more earthquakes, occasionally a spectacular one. And of course there are the manmade disasters as well. We’ve had quite a run of those in the last few years. Nashville is recovering from a bombing. Other cities from riots, fires, and protests, which are useless, silly, and unnecessary. Lots of businesses destroyed, people’s lives ruined, but they expressed their indignation at something or other. I continue to believe that a lot of the protesters are simply out protesting because it’s fun and there’s a good chance of looting and taking home some goodies for free.
Seattle has arrested 4 Antifa members who were attacking a Seattle business. Portland’s mayor has asked for state and federal help in controlling and vanquishing Antifa. Must have been hard to admit defeat. When you are unsure about an individual or organization, go to www.discoverthenetworks.org where you can find out who and what they are. Invaluable.
Do use me as a warning flag, and a reminder to check your own emergency supplies. Do you have the right size batteries for all your flashlights? bulbs? battery powered lamps? Kerosene lamps? One doesn’t think about them until they are needed, and it’s much nicer to be prepared than not. Amazon has a nice array of battery-powered lanterns, designed for camping, but I sure wish I’d had a couple yesterday. Mostly under $20. My daughter-in-law, who works for City Light, reminded me of all the potential causes of power outages, ranging from rats, bats, squirrels on down through copper wire thieves and falling trees, without even getting into our construction foul-up. Naturally, more of this stuff happens in the winter with bad weather, snow, and rain. Floods are for the Spring meltoff, but they can be troublesome too.
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American Elephants 