Black Out !

On September 8, 2011, San Diego was brought upon a city wide black out. It was quite surprising because it was the first black out I have ever experienced and it was completely unexpected. Before 4:00pm my family and I were just eating lunch at home like we usually do until suddenly the TV shut off. Of course it seemed odd but my parents or I didn't bother on turning it back on. I looked over at the clock and noticed it had been off as well. My dad checked everything that ran off power and concluded that there was a power outage.I figured since there would be no light at night I had to finish up my homework till then since I had 2 tests to prepare for. My mom grew bored and even said that she would rather work than stay at home and do nothing. My dad spent most of his time on his iphone checking up on news and playing app games. Ironically my little brother and I spent our time finishing homework while our parents procrastinated their time away. 

By 7:00pm the sky grew darker, and our house became dim. The only source of light was outside, and I figured I would have to go out order to finish reading my chemistry book. My next door neighbor was having a barbecue and I could see people gathering outside with neighbors rejoicing about this event. I wondered wether school would be canceled or not due to the black out but there was no information since phone calls weren't being accepted.Luckily my laptop had 30% battery left and my mom checked her email to find that there was no school the following day. We saw on several sites that the power outage could last until Friday night and so my family and I drove out to buy lighters and flashlights. We were not prepared at all. The stop lights were not working so it was dangerous to drive out, there was even contrsuction going on in my area which caused traffic for us. We bought a lighter and several flashlights at Home Depot and arrived home. My mom heated food while lighting the stove manually.

The whole night we lit our house up with candle's. My dad slept early because he had work the next day. It was hot in our home without any AC but we still managed. I spent most of my time talking with my mom while my brother used up the remainder of my laptop battery to play games. I even experienced taking a shower with one candle lit. The whole power outage experience impacted me a lot and made me realize how much people rely on electricity to run their lives. How many depend on it to keep their lives stable and entertaining with the new technologies we have this generation. Living without power was quite the experience and something I'll remember.