Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

Storms across south Texas knocked out power for about 2,000 people in Port Lavaca early this  morning, which made me think about power outages we've had here in Victoria, and how much we depend on electricity. Electricity is something we take for granted pretty easily. You don't even really think about it, that is until it's not there. TVs, computers, lights, washers, dryers, almost everything we use around the house depends upon electricity.

How many times have you been caught by surprise by a sudden outage? And what's the first thing we do? Try the light switch. No luck, so we go to the breaker box and try to see if it's just our house. No luck there, so we check our street and see if the neighbors power is also out. Then you call the power company, and find out you can't get through. Oh wait, my cordless phone needs electricity. At least we've got our cell phones, assuming they have some charge left in them.  I give the power companies a lot of credit, they do a pretty damn good job at keeping us up and running, but I've always wondered why in this day and age, that we don't have underground power lines, or even wireless power.  Just imagine not having the power knocked out by high winds, or a car hitting a pole. Oh well, just a thought.

Speaking of technology, weren't we supposed to have flying cars by now?