The annual “fall back” drill last month provided an opportunity to grab an extra hour of sleep as part of setting clocks back an hour to mark the end of Daylight Saving Time. On Friday night there’s an even bigger bonus in store for the sleep deprived—a planned power outage for the Rocky Point/Marine Drive neighborhoods.
Puget Sound Energy has gone out of its way to notify its customers. Last week I got a text announcing the outage, and this week a postcard provided even more details. One neighbor told me he heard about the outage in a PSE email. With two days to go, there may be even more communication coming. For the record, the outage will start at 9:30 pm on December 5th and will last for up to 10 hours.
The company seems concerned. The postcard includes several tips on how to prepare and explains why the outage is needed. To me, it’s no big deal. I mean, power goes out, sometimes for the whole night, once or twice a year and we manage to survive. There’s no warning for those outages unless you consider that some of them are caused by windstorms.
It won’t be cold enough Friday night to make not having heat or use of an electric blanket a concern. Adding an extra quilt or two will suffice.
Note: Knowing a power outage is coming is important if you need to run critical medical equipment and don’t have a backup power source. I get that and don’t mean to dismiss how important the PSE announcement is to those customers.
Over the years I have accumulated an assortment of candles, including a candle lantern, and several flashlights to turn to when the power goes out. All of them help me get around in the dark, although none provides enough steady light to read by.
After reading the PSE postcard tips on how to prepare, I considered buying a battery-powered reading lamp. But for now, I decided it would be one more thing I don’t really want and would need to keep charged for future unplanned power outages. It also dawned on me that I can use my iPad to read and listen to music—the two things I do most frequently before going to bed. Or just turn in early. By choosing 9:30 pm as the shutoff time, that might be the message PSE is trying to send to people who are staying home on Friday night. It works for me.
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