What do YOU do when the power goes out?

[MidgeD79]

My power was off from 4am-8pm and we abandoned "ship" at 11:30am for my dd's house about 20 miles south. The power outage affected about 10 homes due to some vandalism. I woek up around 6am and lit a few candles and fell back asleep. I woke up again about 1 hour later. Today was supposed to be cleaning day and I was very frustrated. I de-cluttered my room thoroughly including drawers, purses, jewelry boxes etc. When I went to my dd's I was still "in the mood" so I started on my dgd's room. She is just 5 and wasn't too happy about it. My dd was thrilled! After that we sorted though 3 boxes of pictures and had dinner. We are now home and the first thing I did was get on the disboards of course! Maybe I can get some cleaning done tomorrow after church.

 

[golfgal]

I don't know, we have never had a power outage that long. During the daylight hours we could go on as normal, probably clean and read books or something. At night I suppose we would watch a movie on a laptop or something? We would probably go to the mall for a while too or out to a movie?

 

[Planogirl]

We get them sometimes (for no apparent reason) and we wait a bit and then take off to the mall or somewhere. They always seem to come at night here and I hate sitting in the dark.

 

[Meriweather]

We are rural and have it more than I would like.
Last time was yesterday, but just for a short time.

Two years ago it was out for about 5 days.....we got a generator after that, so now all is good.

 

[Piecey]

The last time we had a power outage was the night before Lucas was born.

I made rice krispie treats and then we sat on the porch. The ice cream man drove by (first and only time I've ever seen him) so we bought ice cream and talked to the neighbors. It was a very, very strange day.

 

[ChristmasElf]

Turn on the generator! A must have especially in Florida with our occasional crazy weather!

 

[GeorgeG]

Being retired after working for an electric utility for 37 years, I take a nap. It's somebody else's problem now...

 

[bluerendezvous]

When our electricity is out, we're usually cleaning up and assessing damage after a hurricane.

 

[DVC-Don]

Well, in about 40 seconds the standby generator kicks in with power and we go on doing what we were before.

 

[locolala]

Depending on how long it's out for, I snuggle up under the blankets (if it's cold, that is) and read a book by flashlight. If it's been off awhile and DH is home, we'll go out to the mall or go to a friends house.

 

[OK!]

Usually, I spend the first few minutes cursing, and then I go dig out some candles. If it looks like it's gonna be out for more than a few hours, I'll head to my parents' house for the night. We've never both been without power at the same time.

 

[JimFitz]

We had a baby boy 9 months after the last time we had a power outage in my home.

 

[piglet50]

call and report it to our local power company. since hurricanes fran and floyd, our power goes out more than it used to. if it's a short term thing (no major storms, etc.), we get out the oil lamps and battery lanterns, play cards, etc. if it's going to be a while or it's really cold or hot, we get out the generator and wait it out.

 

[lillygator]

depends on how long it will be out. we've gone over to WDW before when we had a 5+ day outage due to hurricanes....usually we break out the candles, yahtzee and some cold beers!

 

[JerseyJanice]

We had a baby boy 9 months after the last time we had a power outage in my home.

Was your baby born in 2004?

I usually find light some candles and use them to search for flashlights. Blackouts seem to happen most often at night, and as much as I try to keep them handy, our flashlights are never where I think they are.

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

It depends on why the power went out.

If it's something that isn't weather related, as in there hasn't been unusual weather, then we'll just wait it out as those only last minutes to 10 hours...

If it's due to heavy snow or something we have a battery pack for our pellet stove and we use the generator of fridges and freezers. We have a gas stove. With these things, we could live comfortably... although, if the power is out a long time there will not be any frozen showers... sponge bath it is (it's happened before in a 5 day power outage).

 

[WDWBarb]

The only time we have lost our electricity in the recent past was due to ice storms. When this happens, it's usually out for longer than 1 day.

So, we try to stay warm and that's about it. After last year's ice storm we went out and bought a generator because it was so horrible trying to take care of DD (who was already very sick) and keep my family safe and warm.

But, we did get in a few card games and some Bunco.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Ours was out for 14 days after Ike. We had lots of cookouts with the neighbors. We did a lot of post-hurricane cleanup work. We gathered lots of neighbor kids and took them out canoeing and to the movies to give the other parents a break. We played a lot of board/card games. We read books. We complained a lot.

 

[powellrj]

Due to some kind of grid issue, our power goes out often for long periods of time. I even know where the problem is and how they fix it, but for some reason they won't let me just fix it myself!! It is better since they sent some engineers out, but it still happens more often than I like.

Usually we just go about our business. I hate it when it happens and I have dinner in the oven and its not done! We will eat sandwiches or go out to dinner. Sometimes we will head to the movies and other times we will just take a drive. It really depends on the season. The longest it was ever out was 6 days. We just stayed home and made the best of it.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Light the candles and find the flashlights. Our power went out for about 4 hrs last month. My dd had to do homework by candlelight & call her friends to get info off the internet.