A transformer near our house blew up last night about 9 – big boom and then blackout. PITA screamed. See, this is why they make glow-in-the-dark nail polish! I grabbed the nearest flashlight and went down to light my oil lamps…yes, I’m prepared! FirstBorn left to go driving around with a friend because “there’s nothing to do here” which translates to no internet. Gave PITA a large flashlight (not crazy enough to give her an oil lamp!) and lay in bed reading and eating potato chips by the light of an oil lamp – just like Abe Lincoln. Which totally sucked and I can see why he chose zombie killing as a hobby.

Power wasn’t restored until about 10:30 which necessitated going around the house and turning off all the lights and fans that were going and then rebooting all computers and resetting the router. modern technology makes life so damned easy…

And if you really want to enjoy a little taste of death, try calling ComEd for outage updates…

Note:  If you are smart, you’ll have a corded phone plugged in somewhere.  I have a plain one but I need to buy one with caller ID like this $11.62 AT&T cheapie on Amazon.  Because your cell phones are not going to be sufficient, they’ll blow through their battery and/or you’ll have forgotten to charge them…or all the above.  Voice of experience here.