h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was out in the front yard with my kids when the power went out, and didn't notice until I went inside the house to get something to drink. The first thing I noticed was that the ceiling fan wasn't working. Next, I noticed that the TV wasn't on. (In a house with three kids, for those of you that have none, this is so rare that your brain doesn't actually register the lack of cartoon sounds. You learn to block it out.)

The third thing I noticed was when I went outside. There was smoke pouring from the chemical plants' exhaust towers. It was so thick, in fact, that I thought one of the plants was on fire. Apparently, this is a safety procedure put in place to avoid explosions and fires - the plants burn off whatever chemicals are in their pipelines so nothing bad happens.

From that point on Thursday afternoon, until about 10:15 PM EST Friday night, the entire town was completely black. It was very odd looking out the windown and only seeing what little light the moon and stars managed to give out.

Aside from that, things went relatively smoothly. People around here were very polite at traffic lights and so on - even at the Speedy Q gas station in Wadhams, which was the only gas station in the area that was still pumping gas, people waiting in line (for two hours) to fill up their gas cans and cars were very helpful to each other.

Sure, the kids started having withdrawals from television by Friday morning ("MOM!!! I WANT TO WATCH CARTOONS!!!"), but other than that, and having to throw out just about everything in the refrigerator, it was, at best, a minor problem here.

All the best,
Derek
(DCF)