This just in: In an almost punitive move, PG&E has taken to cutting off power when it gets windy. They blame powerlines being blown down as the cause of fires. No one disputes this. Just as no one disputes that PG&E has spent decades not spending to fix this problem.

A couple of weeks ago, PG&E gave us 24 hours notice that they would be shutting off our power. Somehow, this failed to register as a big deal with me. After all, my neighborhood would lose power about once a year for about 2 to 10 hours. A mild inconvenience at worst.

This was different.

First of all, the timing was surprisingly bad. We knew the power would go out at night. What we didn’t know is that the power would go out while our beds were up in the sitting position as we watched TV. Yes, we have these beds that move your back or legs up as desired. We were in a full sitting position when everything went dark. “No problem,” we thought as we reached for the electric control to lower our bed.

That was the moment when we discovered that our bed would be sofa-shaped until power was restored.

The next morning we discovered that our electric oven wouldn’t be working any time soon. The outage was scheduled to last for several days.

My refrigerator and freezer, upon discovering that power was gone, immediately began to generate heat. It was like appliance revenge. “This will teach you to not appreciate us.”

We couldn’t cook. All of our food went bad.

Two things that made this even worse: (1) It was going to last for days and (2) Power was out everywhere.

If I wanted a cup of coffee, I would have to drive 20 minutes into San Francisco where they had power. I went to the local Safeway and found it looked like something out of a movie. The store was open but the lights were out. Everything that required refrigeration was off the shelves. Dry goods were going fast. I wanted some instant coffee but that shelf was empty.

So…how did I survive?

Step one. I ordered a jar of instant coffee from Amazon and it showed up the next day.

Step two. I broke out my camping stove and did all of my cooking on that. This actually worked out quite well as I have a good stove and lots of propane.

Step three. I ran an electric cord from my car’s A/C outlet down to my bed (about a mile away) and used that power to put my bed back into a “bed” position.

Step four. I then used my car A/C to charge a powerstrip which powered all of our computers and phones.

So I survived, just short of resorting to cannibalism.

These power outages will continue into the future. It will take PG&E forever to fix their powerline situation.

My plan is as follows: (1) Get a home battery that will be used to keep our refrigerators and freezers cool. (2) Solar panels to power the house and recharge the battery. Estimated cost: $30K.

Not cheap but it will eventually pay for itself and increase my home’s value. And most importantly, it will protect me from the inevitable rise in power costs and PG&E funds the much-needed work ahead.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim