September 8th, 2011:
Once upon a time, a guy named Klaatu visited Earth with a huge Robot named GORT and he scared the wits out of the whole world by shutting off ALL of the power in the world for a half an hour.
This scenario was played out in San Diego, County, Arizona, and Mexico at 3:00pm on September 8th 2011. Only, it was not just a half an hour, it is now 9:19pm DST and I am still without power for my little pos area of the Infrastructure Grid. All day long, we have had NO power, NO cell phones, NO Land lines, no internet whatsoever, no WiFi, no LoFi, and no HiFi.
At 3:00pm, I was at a College Avenue Shopping Centre, and I watched as ALL power ceased and desisted. It took me 15 minutes to get to College Avenue at El Cojones Blvd; it took me over an hour to get home to Spring Valley. There were a few Traffic lights, but everywhere I went, there was massive Gridlock, when I got home, ALL my power was out. I was fortunate enough to have some very cold air circulating through my Hovel right before the power went out, and my Freezer and Refrigerator was Ice-Cold, so my goodies I crammed into me Freezer, therefore all the “Foodah” I had just bought is still good.
I thought, “Ah, Power Outage, too bad, it’ll be back up in a few”- WRONG. According to the president of San Diego Beans, Gas, farts and Electric Twaddle, this scenario COULD have taken over 96 hours to get power fully restored. Think about that, 96 hours, how many DAYS is that, this is akin to the 3-Day (?) Blackout in NYC during the Summer of Sam.
This is some frightening PooDoo. I tried looking up the status of the power outage on the Internet, and my iPhone would NOT bring up any websites. I have not been able to make any calls, and as my land line goes through Cocksuck Cable, no Land Line calls, period.
But I also had NO cell phone for the entire time, only Sporadic TEXTING.
Near 7:45, I took a drivel around the neighborhood, and I asked a bunch of iPhoners, can you call out? Nope! Can you Text? Sometimes.
So this was some scary Shite. As I sit here, and thank God I had charged my Lap-bottom earlier today so I had a full charge – No Internet, but I can write this Blog, I reflect on this evening: This is the first time I have seen the STARS since I was a little kid – When I was 6 to 9 years old, my area used to be a very Rural area, and so at night my brother and I used to look at the Constellations and Planets and gunk… 40 years later, there has been so much development in the area that at night we are lucky to see the MOON, and maybe if we are lucky, Venus.
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As I went for a short drive earlier, I stopped at a few places and looked at the beautiful, black SKY “My God! It’s full of Stars!” to quote Kier Dullea from “2010”. I have not seen such beauty in the sky, it was just amazing. And now, I am hearing reports, Lights in Mexico… Lights up North along Hiway 15, and now in National Chitty. Still no lights at my house – I suppose they will eventually get to it.
In my sporadic ability to text my friends, I spoke to one of my fiends who works up near Sorrento Valley, he left his work at 4:00 and by 6:30 he was only halfway home. I wished him luck, I do not know if he got my text message. But I was, and am, severely worried about all my friends who were stuck travelling- And although it took me about an hour and 15 minutes to drive something like 6 miles earlier today, I was very concerned for my friend.
As much as this incident was inconvenient for us, it also raises a note of fear: We ARE dependent on this Electric Infrastructure. It also causes me to question, those two huge gray TEATS up near San Onofre, Where in 10,000 Blazes does that power go to? That Nuke Station was created for SAN DIEGO – It is my understanding, that not only are they in the middle of DECOMMISIONING this vast power supply, that could power San Diego and County for Years and Years, the power generated by that Test Teat is not even being given to San Diego! It is being piped way over to the Midwest.
And so, at 10:20pm, I took a walk outside and I can see, less than three miles away, a blaze of Lights near La Presa/South Spring Valley… But where I am, not a single light blazes, except for a few on the hill to the east of me… Probably generated power. But to the North of me, Mount Helix is Dark, Dark… So as the Rep from SDG&E was saying, they are turning on the power from the North Down, and from the South Up – We in Spring Valley and La Mesa, are probably in the middle of this area, we’ll get our power meted out to us last. We were the first to lose power; we’re the last to get it back.
So as I swelter, my only comfort, a tiny battery operated hand-fan, and the only light I have from three candles, and one portable battery operated music-stand light, I am asking when in 57 blazes can I turn my AC back on? I was lucky earlier today to have a nice cool house, but without new cool air, my tin can becomes a sweatsock. Fortunately, my water heater was not affected, I was able to take two showers, which felt good, I took a hot shower followed by cold shivering water. But as my candles dim and the battery in my music stand light starts to fail, and now my laptop battery is down to 44%, maybe an hour or so left, if they do not get power back to me soon, I’ll be sitting in the hot, sweltering pitch dark.
At 10:45pm, the Street Lights in my park came BACK ON… Still no power to my house though. They installed these new Electronic gas and electric metres, which I suppose sends the info as to how much power and gas I used per month directly to SDGE… This meter has not yet powered up, the LCD Display is as Blank as a Sucked-Dry Teat. So… Im gonna drive around a bit, try to find a cigar somewhere.
9-8-2011, the Day San Diego Stood Still
