About 4AM this morning I was woken. Power went out. And of course it was pitch black inside the home. Then I have texts from Georgia Power – apparently a car whacked a pole and knocked power out. Now the text was only for my address so next I looked out the window and saw no glow from the roadway lights. So then I turned on my flashlight and opened the front door – entire apartment complex was dark.

Next text I got from Georgia power said service restore by 6AM. Sure enough I looked at the lamp next to me the red light was on and the fan was running. Went back to sleep until 8AM.

This got me musing on how fragile electric power is in the United States. If a simple vehicle can knock out power so too a storm etc. That’s why if we do build or buy a place I want solar and wind and a 10 to 20 kilowatt storage system for it. And if there’s natural gas service I’ll put in an external 10kW generator.

Another fun fact the stove and oven — the display had gone dark but I could still set the timer. Well the power off an on again reset it and now the display works. And of course the perpetual Xmas tree was flashing through all its program. Had to shut that off too. Because the modern world runs by and large on electricity.