The power went out today

Today, the power went out at my house. It was fairly sudden. It was not the longest outage ever—clocking in at just over an hour—but it was long enough to get me thinking about the extent to which we are dependent on the continuous faucet of electricity piped in from outside.

The bad news

For the span of that hour, almost every device in the house was off. There would be no opening the fridge, to keep the cool air in. There would be no cooking, as the stove, the toaster oven, the microwave, really all the appliances are electric. I might have been able to enjoy a bowl of cereal but I opted not to eat.

The Internet was unavailable. If this had been a workday, I would have found it difficult to work, as I work remotely. I have a homelab cluster, but it was also off, so I found myself without my self-hosted media server or file storage. I could not listen to music. I could not read digital books. The router and modem were down, so there would be no web surfing.

The TV was off. So too was the gaming PC, so I would not be playing Witcher to pass the time. Nor could I plug in a game console. I wished for a moment that I still owned a gaming handheld, but I don't remember the last time I saw my Gameboy Advance and I think I might have foolishly given it away.

It's been kind of hot lately, so I've been using the AC the past few days. Not any more. Nor would I have a fan to keep cool, as the only fans I own plug into an outlet. I could open a window, but it's even hotter outside.

The good news

So there was a lot that I couldn't do during the outage, but some things were still available.

I have a few flashlights lying around that are well-charged, and I have a decent supply of both rechargeable and nonrechargeable batteries to keep devices going if needed. This came in handy when I brushed my teeth, as our bathroom lacks an exterior window.

The water heater was the single home appliance that was able to continue operating during the power outage, because I still have a gas water heater. The big water tank also meant I would have had hot water for a time, if the water heater had shut off.

I still knew what time it was in the house, not only because my phone was still charged, but because of the battery-powered face clocks that dot the house.

When I looked for something to do, I took out a pad of paper, a pen, and a book to read. I began to occupy myself with reading and writing, and before I knew it, the power was back on.

The meaning of it all

There's a lesson to be learned from today. In the race to build an interconnected world, it's easy to forget that there is value in the small, the simple, and the self-contained.

• Realizing I couldn't access any music streaming service, I started to wish I still had a stereo with CD player.

• Realizing I couldn't watch any movie streaming service, I wished I had a DVD player.

• Realizing I couldn't play any video games, I wished I still had a gaming handheld.

• If I had a landline phone, I could have continued to make calls during the outage, as those were powered from the phone line.

• A solar panel with an inverter would be a very excellent thing to have.

• Shelves with books on them were an extremely helpful things to have today.

Today's modern marvels imply a massive, society-wide operating system that would not be easy to reproduce, let alone restart if interrupted. For this reason, the boring, the manual, and the low-tech continue to have persistent value.

For the odd household task, like hanging a picture frame, unscrewing a panel, or sizing a board, a hammer, screwdriver, or handsaw work just as well, if slower. If my computer were ever fully unavailable, being able to write on paper with a pencil, to write a story, keep a ledger, draw a picture, or perform some computation, means a broad range of activities can continue in some form even with no power. It turns out a physical book doesn't need batteries, and will read the same today or years from now, making it a durable source of information when electricity is not available.

Closing thoughts

Today, I found myself both nostalgic and regretful that I spend so little time pursuing activities that are untethered to screens.

Beyond a healthy change of pace, today's brief power loss was a reminder that pen-and-paper and manual processes continue to play an important role as the operating system of last resort. When normal operating modes are disrupted, our lowest-tech capabilities are flexible, resilient, and adaptable. Having low-fidelity alternatives to your regular activities and being able to do things "by hand" could mean the difference between a crisis and a minor inconvenience.

So I put this question to the reader: if your power goes out, what does your life look like? And if you don't like your answer, what can you do to improve it?