Its summer, so theres always something burning somewhere. Therefore, I didnt think anything unusual about the slight tinge of smoke in the air last night. When I finally trundled off to bed, I noticed that there was some unusually bright lights outside. I peered at the security cams and, surprisingly, theres a fire truck next door. Hmmm. I step outside and ask a basement flooding, hose-dragging, ladder monkey whats going on. Turns out a power pole down the alley was on fire. He said the power company was on its way.

I asked him, should I expect the power to go out? He said he didnt know. Alright, fine. Head back in the house, climb into bed, and about three minutes later theres a sound like a shotgun going off as, I’m guessing, the transformer or junction at the top of the pole explodes. This is followed a few seconds later by the cacophony of UPS alert sounds going off in my house as my computer and security system power supplies start letting me know theyre running on batteries.

Now, really, I could have just turned off the alarms and gone to sleep secure in the knowledge that Northwestern Energy would have the issue resolved in an hour or so. Or….I could see how my preparations for such an event were working.

I appeared that only mine and about four other houses were directly affected. Most people would have slept through it if not for that gunshot-like explosion earlier. First thing I did was turn on the floor lamp in the living room. I had bought it years ago, rewired it to DC, stuck in a 12v LED light bulb, and stuffed a large AGM battery in its base. With my living lit with a ‘normal’ looking amount of illumination, it was time to check the UPS’s. I had replaced the security camera ones about two years ago. The security camera UPS’s did fine and lasted through the duration of the event. The UPS for my router and modem, however, did not. It gave up the ghost after about forty minutes and it should have lasted much longer than that. That particular UPS is due for replacement, it seems. I need to start noting dates of purchase on my UPS’s as I replace them. I’ve just been buying them at Costco for about $125 ea. In fact, maybe I should just return the weak one for an exchange…Costco is ususally pretty good about refunds.

I had no intention of dragging out the generator unless things went on until daybreak. The freezers were full enough of frozen bottled water that I wasnt worried about their contents for at least several hours.

The various flashlights I had around the house were handy and the glow-in-the-dark tape that I had applied to things like door handles and light switchplates were also handy. Only thing I’d have done differently is perhaps just build my own UPS from scratch with a couple more durable AGM batteries.

But, always eye-opening and reaffirming to have moments like this to test out theories and systems.