Blackout

The power went out in my apartment about 30 minutes ago. The entire apartment complex is out; I haven't walked around outside to see how far the blackout extends. I'm posting from my notebook computer and I have both the cable modem/wireless router plugged into a UPS battery. There's not much to do here without electricity. I can't watch TV, play PS2, or even microwave something to eat. So far, I've also avoided opening the fridge trying to keep the cold air in. Blackouts are pretty rare in Southern California now but I remember the days of Enron and rolling blackouts several years ago. Sometimes I wonder if the electricity will ever come back on or is this the end of civilization as we know it. Since I have an electric stove, I'm counting on my gas BBQ as backup!

There seems to be a lot of helicopter traffic. Maybe I'll go out and walk around the building since both my cars are inside the gated area and the gates don't work without electricity. I remember being trapped in Shirley's underground parking garage at her West LA apartment last year. I'm not sure why I was there during a weekday but I was stuck for about an hour inside the automatic gate that wouldn't open. They were just about to manually detach the gate from the electric motor when the power came back on.