# Practically Amish **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 9, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-amish/739977 "2015-12-09T19:00:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-amish/739977/1 "2015-12-09T19:00:11Z")
I’ve got a few vacation days to use up before the end of the year so I decided to take one today. There I was taking a nice nap when I was awakened to the sound of all of the electronics in the house shutting off. I quickly grabbed my smart phone and called the power company… there is an outage in my area affecting over 1,000 people. I suddenly realized I was going to be roughing it. I had left over chili and lasagna in the fridge, but no microwave. Sure, I have a gas cook top but that would mean I would dirty a pan and the dishwasher isn’t working so it would be a lot of hard manual labor to clean it. I went out and thought since it is a nice day that it would be ok convertible weather so even though I had put the car up for the winter I decided to take it… but, the battery was dead. That meant I had to go into the garage and disengage the garage door opener and lift the door up… BY HAND! Then after I backed the car out I had to put it back down again… BY HAND! Anyway, after all of this hard work I drove to the ATM, got some cash and picked up a burger and fries. Got back home and repeated the whole garage door procedure again, and came inside to eat. I frantically looked around to see if I could find a magazine or something because I remembered this old survival skill where you could do this thing called reading. Otherwise I would have been left looking at just my burger and some dark screens. Fortunately I discovered that these magazines had “pictures” in addition to the words so I didn’t really have to dig deep and actually read. The pictures didn’t move, but again… I was roughing it. Suddenly the power came back on… WHEW! Now I know what it must be like to be Amish. That was the longest 45 minutes of my life. I think I’ll take another nap now. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2015, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-amish/739977/2 "2015-12-09T19:04:48Z")
[Ho, ho, ho!](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/94/77/ce/9477cecca01c36e70d6391dab9ae8ad3.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-amish/739977/3 "2015-12-11T08:26:39Z")
Wait, so when there’s a power failure in your neighborhood, ever your car battery stops? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-amish/739977/4 "2015-12-11T14:52:31Z")
What’ve you got against cold, leftover lasagna? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-amish/739977/5 "2015-12-11T15:00:18Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Wait, so when there’s a power failure in your neighborhood, ever your car battery stops? Remote for the garage door opener. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-amish/739977/6 "2015-12-11T15:09:06Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > … There I was taking a nice nap when I was … > > That was the longest 45 minutes of my life. I think I’ll take another nap now. The part I don’t get is why the nap was interrupted at all. You could have simply slept through the entire horrid time-travel-to-1800s-America-and-back experience. Yes, your post would have been much more boring. But your stress level would have been lower. A nap is a good cure for most of life’s frustrations. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-amish/739977/7 "2015-12-11T20:58:51Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The part I don’t get is why the nap was interrupted at all. You could have simply slept through the entire horrid time-travel-to-1800s-America-and-back experience. > > Yes, your post would have been much more boring. But your stress level would have been lower. A nap is a good cure for most of life’s frustrations. Well, not for me. My electric blanket would be out of service too. ---
**Author:** ![scoots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b77776/32.png) [@scoots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scoots)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-amish/739977/8 "2015-12-11T21:38:00Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > Sure, I have a gas cook top but that would mean I would dirty a pan and the dishwasher isn’t working so it would be a lot of hard manual labor to clean it. Pro-tip - if you rinse a pan in flowing water immediately after use it all comes off easy. Don’t even need washing up liquid. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-amish/739977/9 "2015-12-11T21:52:00Z")
What you need in times like these are [projects and hobbies](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQyU4lokVe4)… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/practically-amish/739977/10 "2015-12-12T04:47:28Z")
Should we be calling you “English” at the end of our sentences, English?