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Surviving the Power Outage

You’ve seen it before. A windy night with high winds predicted. At first the lights just flicker, then again, and the third time they are out. Blackness! You wish they had paused long enough between flickers to let you get set for the outage. There you are going from a pleasant evening watching a TV program you didn’t want to see interrupted, to complete darkness. You start moving to where you think the flashlight is, and sure enough, it is there but no light. Now you suddenly remember you dropped it and forgot to replace the broken bulb. Candles! Where did you see those candles last. Stumbling through the house you grab a couple of the decorator candles. They will do. Matches! Since you quit smoking they are a scarce commodity around here. Wish the lights would come back on. Finally, you find a book of matches and at last have some light. Whew! Now you remember the radio you bought that does everything but make toast. Since it is in the basement recreation room and you don’t want to carry the candle, you stumble down the stairs and cross the floor. Ouch! You forgot about moving that table. Finally, you get hold of the Midland Emergency Crank Radio and start to crank it like crazy and then you hear the local news of the tornado a few miles away. While there you take the weather service radio with you to get the official weather warnings. You begin to realize that the power may be out for some time. What will it effect? Then you realize it is getting chilly in the house. The furnace won’t function without power. You crank the radio some more and listen to the local news of what has been hit by the tornado. Wow! a tornado in January. With the howling wind and rain you didn’t hear the big tree in your neighbors yard blow down, blocking the road. The refrigerator is out as is the freezer. The garage door won’t open except by hand power. By now you have discovered a flashlight that works and makes mobility much better. You discover your Xpower PowerPack 300 EP in the garage that you keep charged. It is handy for pumping up tires, jump starting your car and now you utilize the two fluorescent bulbs on the front of it. You take it inside and realize that you have 300 watts at your disposal. Things are looking up. There is nothing to do now but go to bed and assess the damage tomorrow morning. It’s cold by now and you are glad you have a Ultima Supreme Down Alternative Comforter on the bed. Not only that, you have the heavier down comforter available that will feel good tonight. You get a good nights sleep and next morning start planning a better strategy for the next time.