How would you make the best of a blackout?

Just a creative thread on the best ways to deal with a blackout...aside from the horrible things that can happen,
list ideas to spend a memorable blackout.

I would join friends on a rooftop, bbq some meat and fish that's
been frozen and is thawing, drink some wine, light votives inside
hanging glass jars...pull out mattresses, chairs, couches.

What are your festive ideas?

Hire a boat early on for the night...

I would turn on my generator. My power's out half the time anyway lol.

lots of it

:-)

:7

With someone you care for.

Creativity and festive occassions should follow....

...and I know exactly how they spent their time that night--mainly because I was born nine months later! (And no, I'm *not* making that up.)

well, skittles is having a kid in 9 months....

I was in NYC for the 1977 blackout...was living in the
General Theological Seminary in Chelsea...a wonderful little gated enclave and park. It was actually a really nice and memorable
evening.

If I am otherwise safe in my home, as with Hurricane Andrew, then we put on the weather radio and got out the candles and did some barbecue for a couple of days, and it was quite pleasant.

However, I will be frank...
Drinking wine is not a good idea during a natural disaster or when you don't know what the situation is. What if you have to evacuate? Even small power outages can be deadly. There was a power outage in my neighborhood in Jefferson Parish years ago, of only 3 hours in duration, where a child was killed by the candles used to light their home during the outage. You need to be alert when you are stumbling around in the dark!


With Tropical Storm Bill, my house was uninhabitable, and I had to stay at a hotel for several days until power was back on, returning during the day to make what arrangements I could by cell phone to try to secure the house and prevent further destruction of property. However, in that case, the power outages weren't widespread. The neighbors had their power on in a day and were able to let me run a power cord to their outlet, so I could save the food in my refrigerator. It took about a week to arrange to get the large oak tree that collapsed on my house, craned off of my house, and to get the power lines fixed so that we could have power again. I was pretty well bruised from stumbling into things in the dark when the disaster first occurred at 8:25 P.M. on the evening of June 30...and I was perfectly sober! Wine would not have been a good addition to the mix in my humble opinion.

not very fun, but informative.

During the Ice Storm of 2001 in Missouri, we were out of power in February, in the middle of winter. Luckily, we have a fireplace and had lots of candles on hand. We cooked in the grill outside, and slept on the living room floor, in front of the fire. It was an interesting experience, and brought home how consumptive a society we really are. We are so dependant on our enery sources, people panic when they have to do without. It lasted for four days for us, but there were a lot of people in surrounding areas who went without power for three weeks or more. It certainly brought the power of nature front and center.

interesting nick.

Keep hoping I can find time to post more often-but it's all I can do to keep up on my reading here!
The nick is a combo of my initials, my sign and my birthday-easy to remember and it kinda flows.;)

and, of course, encourage everyone to go topless because it's so hot without AC :D

It was due to a fire in the basement of my townhouse, it took out some of the electric meters, mine happened to be one. I basically just hung out at the local coffee house in the evenings and weekends, and went to work like normal. I did have a gas stove, so that helped, and the water worked. At first, I thought it would be the end of the world, but it turned out ok.