Power Outage Report →[More:]So last night my power company had a planned outage for an equipment upgrade. I'd forgotten all about it and was taken by surprise when the lights went out at 11:00, interrupting my all-important reading hour (currently LeGuin's "The Lathe of Heaven"). I got out a flashlight and went to bed.

I actually kind of like power outages. Everything gets so peaceful. No radio, no internet calling to me, no little green lights winking or refrigerator motor running on and on. Just quiet and dark. I think I sleep better on occasions when this happens.

At 4AM the lights come back on. I'd neglected to switch them off. More worrisome is the intermittent electrical zapping noise coming from somewhere in the house. Power stays on for a couple of minutes then goes back out. I stumble back to bed.

Power is back on this morning but my SO's computer is dead. Fortunately, it turned out that just the cheap surge protector got killed. Another one also got killed in another part of the house. I'm a bit irritated. Shouldn't the power company be able to manage a little better? Should I complain? At least the surge protectors did their job. But I worry there could be incipient damage to other electrical things in the house (like that $1400 water pump I put in last year).