Vancouver Blackout 2015 My Event.

Happy Monday!

It's only happy because we have power now where out of the 500,000 people without it over this weekend there are still about 60,000 in the dark around the Lower Mainland. So...not so happy for those guys.

Saturday morning was like any other Saturday. In PJ's puttering around the house watching the sun peak in and out. Standing on the back deck chatting and a gust of wind came up so hard that I thought the table umbrella was going to take a Wizard of Oz trip. We were expecting the wind, seeing it all over the weather reports we knew we were in for a windy day.

Boy were we wrong. We underestimated the force of what was coming and although the wind itself didn't last long, the carnage it left in its wake lasted for days...still counting. I figured when the wind kicked up and tried to lift the roof over deck off that we would definitely lose power along with the flickering lights. Before I had left the house Choo had put laundry in and I had said something about that maybe not being a good thing. At some point so those of us in the house decided it was time to hit up our downtown core here in PoCo and get some things to get us through like sandwich stuff and extra candles. For Craig the emergency was the Liquor store.

We figured hey why not if the lights go out we'll have a Blackout party of sorts. So Craig, myself and Bean take of to get 'provisions' and we weren't the only ones who thought that way. We had a plan. Store, dollar store ( candles ) and Samz beer and wine store. The grocery store was buzzing with people on the same track. We grab what we need and head up to the till and we're behind 2 other customers chit chatting with people about the wind. Then everything went dark...everywhere and there was a collective AWWWWW Many of us left our things behind while the poor few that were in the middle of debit transactions were about to lose their minds.

Bean and I were about to head back to the house when Craig was determined to check if the place that held all that would save him that day was open. So away we went telling him there was no way but he needed proof. Walking down the street and seeing everyone pop out there doors on the storefront at the same time all talking to each other about whether to close up or hang in there in case it was a quick fix made me think "This is how natural disaster movies start."

People holding the goods they could get and all the street lights going out on that busy road on a Saturday was not going to be a good thing. After getting to the door of Samz and practically having Craig cry tears of distress, we went home this... was all about noon. Walking back we saw a tree across the street from our house had been ripped completely clear of the ground and hit some lines. Well...shit. We still have a downed phone line hanging from a pole outside.

We got home and let everyone know that we almost made it but we had to think of other means for the evening. Bean and Craig were on that immediately looking for things that were open and a ride to get there as we sat in the windows watching debris tumbleweed across the street. Where Choo was cursing because the washer's lid locked and there it sat in a drum of water until we got the power back. We heard that  Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge were out as well as Coquitlam and Burnaby and large parts of Vancouver. Everywhere was blacked out. Blondunicorn had a wedding to go to and I have to say that the universe was looking out for the bride and groom. They were supposed to have an outdoor wedding but the rain that had been called for had caused them to change the Venue and wouldn't you know it, it turned out to be the only place in Port Coquitlam ( South side anyway ) that did not lose power.

The kids found out the only place they could go for anything was Port Moody so they headed out to hunt and forage as I was saying to them. It took them 2 hours to get to and back from a city only 2 cities away from us. Sese decided she was going to brave the wind and now rain and head to a friends in New Westminster where they were dark too and what to you know Translink was letting people on for free. It took a little longer because everyone driving had the 4 way stop procedure to adhere to and many of them didn't. At that point it was much safer to j-walk than try to cross at an intersection. Sese called us from the bus stop to say she saw BU drive by her with a branch under her car. OK we giggled at that while sending her a text to warn her that she didn't get until she had parked the car anyway and all was well.

I have to say though that having no power makes absolutely everyone social physically. With no WiFi and trying to conserve battery power we all but tuned out of anything virtual having to talk to each other and play games to pass the time. We would check repeatedly on the BC Hydro website only to find the site um...down for maintenance? Really...of course but the company was Tweeting in lieu anything else. Craig had his Sleemans crisis security blanket and after almost an entire bottle of Jim Beam ( not all by me thank you ) we decided at around 11 pm and with the streets so black not a light in sight we were going to take a walk. BU was back by then and joined in the fun. It wasn't raining but all the cloud cover hid the Full moon and the bevy of stars we might have seen. Can you imagine how many more there would have been without all the light pollution? That would have been cool.

So me, Blondunicorn, Bean, Craig and Handsome Dan hit the streets and all I could think was Night Of The Comet. Well that and screaming Zombie every time a dark figure appeared making me want to hit them with pieces of trees.

All in all though we had a good time! Until the next morning when we still had no power...then as usual the only thing that would have saved us was coffee. How were we going to make coffee? Well Choo was up to bat for that and since he slept through most of the outage, it seemed fitting. Finding a metal kettle and propane, on the BBQ he heated up water for our wake up. As the morning dragged on we all got antsy, needing to do something, anything to kill time until all of the things we blindly depended on came back to us. I got so stir crazy that went to get dressed and go for a walk just to do something. BU hadn't slept much because the Assisted Living condos beside us had their generator running all night and it was not quiet.

As I'm putting my pants on, someone screams from up the street. A loud WOOOOOOOO! traveled along the sound waves and just like that we were back on line as cheers erupted in the house we scared the crap out of BU waking her up and my cell phone had a stroke as all the notifications from various places filed in once it's life was revived.

Even though we regained our power most of our city was still out even a block away at the storefront was still dark until late last night. What it made me realize though was that we are not even close to being prepared for something larger. Not by a long shot. It makes you think though about how to solve that problem and as much as we know what we should have in the case of Earthquakes or Floods we are sadly not prepared enough.

 So now one of my goals is to change that.

OK guys have a great week!

See Ya
S

...And Then We Could Have Caught On Fire

I hope your New Year is going well!

Ours was strange...well it's always strange but this was interesting and proof that we need to think in a more logical manner.

A couple of weeks before Christmas I woke up for work, turned on my bedroom lamp and proceeded to get ready. I went in the bathroom and when I came out and when I looked into my kitchen and noticed my stove was off. Back in the bedroom the lights were very dim. Now this isn't odd because sometimes if you turn on both ovens and the kettle we'll blow a breaker between the upstairs and downstairs suites. The funny thing was that it only seemed to be certain parts of the rooms. After about 20 mins of flipping switches and wandering around slightly confused everything came back on.

No problems again until...

This past Friday. So on Thursday night we were talking about how odd the power thing was weeks before. You know you get to the point where it's like hey...this could be paranormal!!!! Paranormal...I wish!

Fast forward to Friday night. Everyone is home things are good and then the TV in the living room sounded like speakers when the sound is too loud and it's blown out. It shut's off, the PS3 shuts off, and the heater kicks out but the Digital box, modem and telephone stay on... in the kitchen the stove, fridge and microwave kick off but the coffee pot is on???? All of the lights in the bedrooms upstairs dim significantly except the bathroom and, downstairs the bathroom and laundry room lights go completely out.

Then we're back to tripping breakers and hoping things will work out. After a while of doing that and the fridge and stove continuing to shut on and off, TV's ticking ( like timebomb ticking ) We figured we'd go to bed and see if everything righted itself in the morning like the last time. The larger items seemed to just not be getting enough power. We still had the internet but it was FREEZING, you know on the coldest day we've had in the past month! Like deep frost "look ice!" cold for us.

We researched what it could have been, even down to the Smart Meters causing power surges but those surges ended up in Fires and Explosions...ok, not making me feel better.

I wake up!
High hopes!

Teeth chattering I go into the kitchen the stove is on yay!... for about 10 seconds. Then it's one of those things where you ask do I call and Electrician or BC Hydro? I called BC Hydro and guess what the had a menu selection for exactly what our problem was! They sent someone out to check it and he tells us ( in a matter of fact way )that there was a break in our line and the electricity was arcing from point to point trying to connect and we were lucky because we could have caught on fire.

Caught on fire?

Now we've been EXTREMELY lucky we haven't caught on fire...unless you count the time Allan lit the dryer lint on fire by accident and the shop caught...nevermind that's another story. Usually our bad luck in the house is water related.

Ugh I think it's time to move...

See ya
S