How To Blog During A Power Outage?
Here is an entertaining bit that you’ll find amusing. Tonight’s post is going to be something different. We had a pretty bad storm come into town tonight and I have lost the power to my house. As I writing this post, I am doing so under candle light. You might be wondering, how can I write a blog post without power? Well, the solution to this problem didn’t come very easy. Especially, with the fact that I don’t own a backup generator. This has been a very trying adventure I must say and after about an hour of work, I finally pulled it off. I am online and I am blogging! Here is how I did it.
I happened to have a power inverter in the attic, I remember buying it for road trips so that I could hook it up to my cigarette lighter in the car to power things such as a “laptop”. I dug out this old power inverter and plugged it into my car. From there, I found a 75 ft extension cord from my garage and plugged it into the power inverter and ran the line from the car into the house.
I took the cord and bypassed many of the important things, such as plugging in the fridge or perhaps a small wattage television and went straight for my home office. LOL!!!
In my home office I was able to unplug my power strip from the wall and plug it into the extension cord that was connected to my car. The power inverter is only 500 watts PEEK so I had to make sure to be sparing with the my wattage consumption.
I unplugged many things from the power strip… fax machine, printer, scanner, etc. What remained was my laptop A/C adapter, cable modem and my Linksys router. Ahhh…. it worked!!! At this point, I powered up my laptop and proceeded to go online, but there was a problem…
It appeared that the storm took out the cable also.. DRATS!!!!!
Luckily for me, I have a back up dial up account thru, God I don’t even know… I think EarthLink?? I just remembered the phone number, user name and password for access. I have no clue who the provider is. LOL!!!
So, as I am writing this post, I have my wife’s car burning fuel to power a 500 Watt power inverter which converts DC power into AC power. I h ave a 75 foot extension cord plugged into the power inverter which has been stretched into my home office to power my stupid laptop, cable modem, and wireless router (both of which aren’t needed as the cable is out).
So, why not just run the notebook off battery power? Hmm… good question! Reason for that, is because I am still waiting on dead beat Dell to ship my replacement laptop, as this current one has a battery that doesn’t hold a charge.
So, after discovering all that I am going through to write my nightly post, my question for you is “is this all worth it? or should I just read a freaking book under candle light?” LOL!!!
Thought I would share! 
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10 comments
We had two power outages in the past week. Both were due to car accidents and downed poles. Like you, it also takes out the cable as well as electricity, water and phone. The first time I was on my way out and when I got back it was restored. But the second time I was not dressed yet and reading my RSS with my morning coffee, so I couldn’t even shower until the power was on again. It was frustrating that the whole house was shut down but I felt bad for whoever was in the accident. I mostly worried about the food in the refrigerator and the fish in the fishtank (without their bubbler). Thankfully it came back on within an hour or so.
This also reminded me of a few years ago, I was in the shower with shampoo in my hair and the power went out. It took a long time for it to come back on that day too. Talk about a dilemma! lol
Talk about dedication.
I’ve had the power go out, or the cable go out before on blogging days. Frustrates me to no end. My only solution has been a back to the dark ages of pen and writing pad. Taking notes and cursing until I can get back online
That’s pretty funny, Garry! We had a blizzard blow through our town last night and the wind is still persistent this morning. Luckily, we haven’t lost power since we moved in last year.
eww, hope ya get the electricity back on soon. We are suppose to have a winter storm tonight and all day tomorrow. Sure hope that doesn’t happen but powering up the laptop just in case. So what was the wife and kids doing while you were playing online? lol
Man…you really got it bad? Don’t ya?
Dude! Do you EVER take a break from blogging? A power outage is God’s way of saying “take a fuggin break Gary”..
Read a book, take a nap, smell a flower, hug a wife..
I’m just sayin..
Yea, I’d have read a book. I’ve powered my server with my car before to prevent it from going down. I powered it for about 30 minutes after the 1 hour UPS drained. I’d only power my laptop with it after I have used all of my battery. I would then re-charge my laptop with the power inverter & use it while its charging. Its not the best thing to power computer components with a inverter. Your taking DC (from car) To AC (inverter) To DC (power adapter for laptop). Then you still end up with a slow dial up connection
Haha! I love Randy’s comment.
Yes, you’ve got it bad, Garry.
Of course, the rest of us do too. We just don’t have the smarts to think of a creative solution like you did!
Hell, if that didn’t work, I was about to bust out my old Mr. Wizard book from childhood and figure out how to generate electricity with a fork and two potatoes.
and yes! Randy’s comment is freaking hilarious! LOL!!
That is hilarious. I noticed you said that you were burning the fuel in your “wifes car”! and I would be really in the bad books if I bypassed powering up the fridge as well. Anyway, looks like maybe a back up generator is on the shopping list next time you go to the mall instead of a hair straightener!
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