After The Rain

After the rain the other day (0.13 " total) the clouds left, the sun came out and the temperature shot up twenty five degrees, into the upper 90s in the space of a couple of hours, the first time we've been over 90 degrees this summer.   It stayed hot Wednesday and Thursday, too.  Then Thursday afternoon, just when everyone's air conditioners were cranking hard, the power went out all over Southern California.  And it stayed out well into the night for most people.

So we hauled out the candles and the bottles of wine, pulled up the chairs on the front porch and caught up on how our neighbors were getting along.

Several of them came by in search of batteries for their flashlights, which reminded me that Cindy had given me a crank-driven work light last Christmas.  I pulled it out, cranked it up and we were amazed at how much light it puts out.  It lit up the kitchen well enough for us to do the dishes, an important task when the Argentine ants are on the march, as they are now.

That Dynamo Work Light is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  It even had a hook to hang it on the cabinet knob, although we could also have used the magnets to attach it to the refrigerator.  And since it works on a crank, we didn't have to worry about dead batteries.  Cindy got it from Lee Valley.

However, the power outage also reminded us that we need to update our emergency supplies and procedures.  Living in a part of the world where earthquakes and wildfires are unfortunately facts of life, we need to be prepared both for evacuating, or for "sheltering in place", depending on the circumstances.

One problem we had during the blackout was the lack of information; we had to depend on a neighbor's cell phone contact with her husband, who had access to County emergency information.  None of our household radios worked because, yes, the batteries were all dead and we didn't think of using our car radio.  So today we ordered a Hand-Crank Radio from Lee Valley and a couple more of the work lights.  The radio also has a solar panel, so the radio can stay charged through either solar or incandescent light.  I really like that feature; it's renewable energy not dependent on batteries that become depleted and have to be disposed of responsibly.

We survived this power outage, and we'll be better prepared for the next emergency.  As long as we have plenty of wine on hand, anyway.