# This probably isn't signficant, but my power just went out. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 23, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-probably-isnt-signficant-but-my-power-just-went-out/197143 "2003-08-23T13:40:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-probably-isnt-signficant-but-my-power-just-went-out/197143/1 "2003-08-23T13:40:23Z")
About twenty minutes ago, 6:25am Seattle time. Just CLICK! and all the lights are gone. My laptop is running on battery, and the phone line is still up. (Obviously, or I couldn’t be posting this.) I went outside and walked up and down the block, looking for porch lights and whatever. Everything on our street is out. As I was walking back, a woman leaned out her window and said, “Hey, is your power out?” Yep, I confirmed. Brief banter. No obvious answers. I recommended she find a radio with a battery, and she looked at me like my shorts were full of brie. Are we really so chained to our outlets that nobody has anything without a cord any more? Am I the oddball for immediately knowing where I could find three battery-powered radios in my house? Anyway, I’m listening to one of them now. (I got it out of our shower. It’s a waterproof model, in the form of a colorful plastic fish. Looks funny sitting on the side chair.) The local all-news station hasn’t mentioned the power outage, which leads me to conclude it’s just the neighborhood, and not a city-wide event. So, not a big deal. Just a local annoyance; somebody probably hit a pole or dug through a cable. Still, on the heels of last week’s Northeast Surprise, it’s rather more disconcerting than mere inconvenience. And as long as I still have laptop battery and phone, and I can’t turn on the TV, I might as well post about it. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-probably-isnt-signficant-but-my-power-just-went-out/197143/2 "2003-08-23T14:09:18Z")
My parents were visiting a little while ago, and they don’t have a CD player in the house. My mom actually would go sit in the car to listen to CDs. I have them a little round boom box with radio, tape, and CD player so the neighbors would not be POSITIVE she was a loon, and then about a week ago we lost power for a few seconds at a time five times in 90 minutes, and I realized that was my battery powered radio I had given away. I was scoping them out in KMart just yesterday. ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-probably-isnt-signficant-but-my-power-just-went-out/197143/3 "2003-08-23T15:07:49Z")
All of these power outage stories make me realize that I’m totally unprepared here. Last year we had ice storms and many places were without power for WEEKS, so I should know better. Thanks for the reminder and I hope your power comes back soon! ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-probably-isnt-signficant-but-my-power-just-went-out/197143/4 "2003-08-24T00:16:10Z")
Came back on a while ago. No explanation on the power company’s website or outage hotline. Just _off_ … aaaaaaaaand now it’s back on again. Normally I wouldn’t think anything of it, but like I said, in the wake of last week’s event, it was pretty startling when it happened. ---
**Author:** ![tolyri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@tolyri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tolyri)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2003, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-probably-isnt-signficant-but-my-power-just-went-out/197143/5 "2003-08-24T03:15:51Z")
Our power went out during a storm last week. I was on the computer, hubby was watching tv and the friend was eating in the kitchen. It came back on within a few seconds. By the time I got rebooted, hubby got the cable box loaded and friend reset the microwave clock, it went out again. Very annoying. I reset my alarm clock, but forgot to reset the alarm time. I am such a snooze hound that I just realized yesterday that my alarm has been going off at midnight evey night. No wonder I haven’t slept well.