Power's Out, No Coffee…
Guys, this morning ALMOST turned tragic. SoCal Edison turned off our power due to routine maintenance (we were not notified however), which turned a typical chaotic borderline disaster induced morning into an actual one. No power meant no Coffee ☕️ 🤦🏽♀️... as a mother to 3 kids this may have possibly been the worst news of my life. While we struggled through our morning in the dark (amid flashlights), I have a few lessons here. Take note - because in a real disaster, Starbucks will be the least of your concerns:
1) Flashlights - you think you have enough? You don’t- we have the blackout buddy lights in every room and hallway in my house, and yet it wasn’t enough to function. They do exactly what they are intended to do; turn on when they loose power. But they are not intended for long time, light a room so you can function purposes. So, in addition to my stockpile of flashlights, I’m getting a few lanterns that will produce more light so we don’t have to eat breakfast in the dark 👍. - also, have two or three extra sets of batteries for each flashlight 🔦. It could be weeks before power is restored.
2) Generators - you need one, to power your fridge, charge your phone, make a cup of coffee ☕️ 🙌🏼... Merry Christmas 🎄 you’re welcome 😉 - PS I like the solar ones, not gas
3) Emergency release for your garage door- know how to use it- there’s is an emergency release tab you can pull to release the spring on the garage door. Know where it is and how to use it. This was especially helpful when I made my coffee run to Starbucks and my car was in my garage.
4) Duct Tape your refrigerator! No, I’m serious- I think the fridge was opened no less than 15 times this morning by my children. What they needed remains unknown because they were still asking for breakfast after breakfast 😂. It makes you stop and think before you open it, and keeps those little hands OUT. Keep it cold for as long as possible!
5) Information is scarce - no one knows anything... EXCEPT NextDoor of course 😉. The Public Information is majorly lacking here. Yes Edison was responsible for notifying us, but clearly something went array and the outage went way beyond its scope (and time), and yet no one knew what was going on. Edison website had it on the map, but customer service had no idea what I was taking about. Should the city have stepped in to reinforce the messaging or at least sent something out on the backend with a quick description of what happened and public education on how to prepare for loss of power? Perhaps. I can’t imagine the calls dispatch received this morning 😂 #missedopportunity
Despite our mini catastrophe, we survived 🙌🏼. As inconvenient these incidents are, they make you think and test out mini parts of your disaster plan/supplies which is way better than in an actual disaster.
And despite Edison’s attempts to ruin my life (because no ☕️), they failed because #theresastarbuckseverywhere🙌🏼 #winning😉
Happy planning 😁