I experienced the deep freeze in Texas in Feb 2021. Electricity went out and Indoor temps dropped quickly. I was in a house with a gas fireplace. The gas didn't go out when the electricity did, but all the heat just went up the chimney. The temp inside dropped from 68 to 44 (-2F outside) in about 5 hours. Fortunately, a friend and her husband called and said their power was still on and they were coming over to pick me up.
I've lived in cold-weather states; Idaho, Utah, Colorado. Living in cold weather is doable when there is heat inside. But without heat, it got really scary really fast. The fear was visceral. I've never felt so vulnerable. Some people didn't have water due to broken pipes. Some people didn't have food because they've never learned to stock up for a freezing-rain rainy day! And without heat, in such bitter cold, hypothermia was so close. It's a miracle only 246 people died. I was way more scared then than in the past 2 years from an invisible bug! We have allowed those in control of vital resources that our lives depend on way too much power.
You can tell a story, my friend. A story about the power going out and I greedily devoured every word. Love the story about your daughter and the ghosts and of course, you rip my soul out (again) with the motorbike story.
And you are absolutely right about how close we are to going sideways with this reliance on tech. There is a movie I saw once called, The Trigger Effect. Long time ago. We are so close to being primitive animals.
Just a very provocative piece, and not to love bomb you too much, but you have a very unusual way of creating pictures with your words, and you do it in a minimal fashion. I feel like I could pass a quiz right now on details in this story.
Thank you. I've heard of nine meals to anarchy but not the trigger effect. I certainly know the ripple effect though and the long spoons analogy. I'm going to simplify that: you really really really want/need the world to work in a sensible, organized manner. Too many people think they're watching a movie right now! "May you live in uninteresting times." Indeed
Hi Amy, I am living in SiSaKet province (South Isaan, bordering Cambodia) and - same as in Phuket - because of a storm or heavy rainfall we can have an electricity outage of the entire village here too. From the top of my head, this happens approx 3-4 times a year and is usually repaired within 1 to max 3 hours. Luckily, it has never occured after 8 PM as that would probably mean you would have to be patient till next morning before the problem is fixed.
Two weeks ago, there were also works taking place on the electricity net (the truck from PEI being stationed at the main pole on the village entry road, and guys doing some work up high). That took FIVE days and each time the electricity was shut-off from approx 9h00 till 17h00. Quite inconvenient, as there were 2 really hot afternoons during that 5 day period.
Before moving to Thailand I always took electricity-availability for granted because in Belgium - my home-country - if there is an unplanned 1/2 hour outage it's front-page news as that happens only once every 5 to 10 years.
But indeed we take it for granted that electricity always works as we have become very dependent on it (electrical appliances, food in the fridge/freezer, electric water-pump, etc.).
It was the same in Las Vegas maybe in 8 years of staying there I can only think of one time when the power went out for more than a couple of seconds (that was a few hours due to a vehicle hitting a utility pole). I had a very interesting experience in America in the summer of 2003 though: there was a huge East Coast grid outage lasting four days affecting millions of people. As luck would have it, I was right on the line in Toledo, Ohio, where we had power. My boyfriend was staying in Centerline, Michigan and did not. He called me and told me to load up on batteries, ice, flashlights, a portable radio, a few gasoline cans, charcoal, a propane canister, you name it. It was summer and the weather was nice so everyone was grilling their soon to be spoiled meat and neighbors were having a party of it. It was really peaceful and fun for us but we're were close to the have electric area. I remember thinking at the time though about how gas station pumps didn't work, ATM machines didn't work, automatic cash registers didn't work and such so EVERY SHOP in the power outage area was closed. If you add in the effects of winter weather, when pipes freeze and in a polar vortex having heat on becomes a crisis situation in a few hours without, I could see which places were in greater danger..
I experienced the deep freeze in Texas in Feb 2021. Electricity went out and Indoor temps dropped quickly. I was in a house with a gas fireplace. The gas didn't go out when the electricity did, but all the heat just went up the chimney. The temp inside dropped from 68 to 44 (-2F outside) in about 5 hours. Fortunately, a friend and her husband called and said their power was still on and they were coming over to pick me up.
I've lived in cold-weather states; Idaho, Utah, Colorado. Living in cold weather is doable when there is heat inside. But without heat, it got really scary really fast. The fear was visceral. I've never felt so vulnerable. Some people didn't have water due to broken pipes. Some people didn't have food because they've never learned to stock up for a freezing-rain rainy day! And without heat, in such bitter cold, hypothermia was so close. It's a miracle only 246 people died. I was way more scared then than in the past 2 years from an invisible bug! We have allowed those in control of vital resources that our lives depend on way too much power.
Amy, you know what a relentless critic I am!
That was amazing. Ahhhhmmmmaaaazzzzing.
You can tell a story, my friend. A story about the power going out and I greedily devoured every word. Love the story about your daughter and the ghosts and of course, you rip my soul out (again) with the motorbike story.
And you are absolutely right about how close we are to going sideways with this reliance on tech. There is a movie I saw once called, The Trigger Effect. Long time ago. We are so close to being primitive animals.
Just a very provocative piece, and not to love bomb you too much, but you have a very unusual way of creating pictures with your words, and you do it in a minimal fashion. I feel like I could pass a quiz right now on details in this story.
Humble prayers to you and your family, my friend.
Thank you. I've heard of nine meals to anarchy but not the trigger effect. I certainly know the ripple effect though and the long spoons analogy. I'm going to simplify that: you really really really want/need the world to work in a sensible, organized manner. Too many people think they're watching a movie right now! "May you live in uninteresting times." Indeed
Hi Amy, I am living in SiSaKet province (South Isaan, bordering Cambodia) and - same as in Phuket - because of a storm or heavy rainfall we can have an electricity outage of the entire village here too. From the top of my head, this happens approx 3-4 times a year and is usually repaired within 1 to max 3 hours. Luckily, it has never occured after 8 PM as that would probably mean you would have to be patient till next morning before the problem is fixed.
Two weeks ago, there were also works taking place on the electricity net (the truck from PEI being stationed at the main pole on the village entry road, and guys doing some work up high). That took FIVE days and each time the electricity was shut-off from approx 9h00 till 17h00. Quite inconvenient, as there were 2 really hot afternoons during that 5 day period.
Before moving to Thailand I always took electricity-availability for granted because in Belgium - my home-country - if there is an unplanned 1/2 hour outage it's front-page news as that happens only once every 5 to 10 years.
But indeed we take it for granted that electricity always works as we have become very dependent on it (electrical appliances, food in the fridge/freezer, electric water-pump, etc.).
It was the same in Las Vegas maybe in 8 years of staying there I can only think of one time when the power went out for more than a couple of seconds (that was a few hours due to a vehicle hitting a utility pole). I had a very interesting experience in America in the summer of 2003 though: there was a huge East Coast grid outage lasting four days affecting millions of people. As luck would have it, I was right on the line in Toledo, Ohio, where we had power. My boyfriend was staying in Centerline, Michigan and did not. He called me and told me to load up on batteries, ice, flashlights, a portable radio, a few gasoline cans, charcoal, a propane canister, you name it. It was summer and the weather was nice so everyone was grilling their soon to be spoiled meat and neighbors were having a party of it. It was really peaceful and fun for us but we're were close to the have electric area. I remember thinking at the time though about how gas station pumps didn't work, ATM machines didn't work, automatic cash registers didn't work and such so EVERY SHOP in the power outage area was closed. If you add in the effects of winter weather, when pipes freeze and in a polar vortex having heat on becomes a crisis situation in a few hours without, I could see which places were in greater danger..