I live in San Diego. The weather is supposed to be perfect. Last week, it wasn't. It was BLOODY HOT! Like late 90's early 100's
Ok... I know I know... I grew up in Texas, and I know what real heat is. 90's doesnt sound like that bad... just lay out at the beach and you'll be fine... right?
WRONG! Most of San Diego doesnt have air conditioning. Most houses and apartments and even schools have NO AIR! We're not use to having bad heat, so nothing was built with air conditioning. And those of us that have jobs and don't live at the beach, sweat it out...
(ok ZONIES I dont want to hear it... I know its like 115 there, but you go from your air conditioned house to your air conditioned car to your air conditioned job... so you cant relate... sorry)
So Im sitting in my office which is 97 degrees on the inside. I have three fans in my face blowing hot air. So I revel in my 20 minute drive home with the car's A/C, and I get home to 95 degrees inside the house with a hundred fans blowing hot air. Its too hot to turn on the stove or oven, so we eat microwave food or sandwichs... MISERABLE... but it gets worse!
On Thursday like around 3:30 the power goes out. Im at work and we're having some construction, so I figure they just did something. I head home and realize that all the stop lights are out. Not only that, but the power is out at most of the stores Im driving by. A lot of the radio stations were fuzzed out too... strange. My gas light turns on, so I pull into a gas station, only to realize that the pumps rely on electricty.
Sucks... so I get home and it hits me... no electricity= NO FANS, NO COLD DRINKS, NO ICE, NO STORES TO HANG OUT IN TO GET COOL, etc... DEATH! It was 95 degrees and there was no escaping it or getting cool.
{not to mention the fact that my phone was dead and I dont have a car charger... not that it matters cause I was out of gas and couldnt drive anywhere any way!}
We listened to our neighbors battery powered radio and found out that all of San Diego county, over to Palm Springs, down to Rosarito Mexico were out of power. No one had any idea about what caused it. People were saying everything from Terrorists to Aliens.
Since it was too hot for any one to sit in the house, it was like a block party. Everyone was hanging out outside, the pool was completely full from edge to edge... poor Kobe was panting to death {I kept him on wet towels and continuously sprayed him with a squirt bottle}
All the stores and gas stations and restaurants were closed. Traffic was a disaster, no one knew what to do. It was like a natural disaster, and thankfully I was prepared with flash lights and back up {hot} water.
We all slept in the living room {since it has the best air flow} a lot of people slept outside, or on the beach. And by slept I actually mean layed there sweating to death and too hot to move.
The power came on the next morning around 8 and I cried... that 18 hours was the most miserable of my life. I truly have a testimony of electricity, you never realize how much you need it until you dont have it anymore. No internet, no TV, no radio {unless you have batteries} no cell phones {the towers were down} no gas for the car, no debit card purchases... the list goes on and on! We were truly out of touch with the world, and it was weird.
They found out that something in the power lines between California and Arizona blew out. It took them 12 hours to find the problem, but they fixed it pretty quick once they did. That is a very widespread power outage... a lot of people and businesses affected.
What would you do without electricity?
