Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 16, 2025

Arlo is wise man.

Could be weeks Janis

Go to bed to keep warm. Soup beforehand, followed by electric blankets help.

Go to a hotel. That’s always my back up plan. But I have 4 cats and I would never leave them. In 25 years of living in the woods the power has only stayed off for about 12 hours. Chill out Janis, you can always have a wine and cheese party.

Not a darn thing Janis

Give Janis a break. Ice storms that far south aren’t too common.

First, enjoy yourself while you have power. Make some soup. Make some popcorn. If you rely on electricity to pump your water, maybe fill up a bathtub with hot water. Check the batteries in your flashlights. Gather up some quilts and blankets and make yourself a nest. Then IF the power goes out, you can worry about it staying out.

Also, remember that sharing body heat works best skin-to-skin.

We live in ice-storm country. In the 50+ years we’ve been in this house, the power has only been out longer than 12 hours once. And, that was in mid-summer when it was 104° f. The 12 hour outages? Twice, during hurricanes.

Donner Party: Day One

Been there and done that, back in ’73 Atlanta had an ice storm, we were without power for about a week, fortunately we had a gas stove so we huddle around the stove with the oven door open, also had a gas heater in the basement. The worst part was that the neighbors behind had power most of the week.

Whenever a bad storm is predicted I prepare. Filling the tubs with water to flush the toilets ✓ Fill containers with drinking water ✓ Flashlights and batteries ✓ Propane for the grill ✓ Charge cell phones etc. ✓ Gas in cars ✓ One day my wife asked me: Why do you do all his stuff when we’ve never lost power for more than an hour? I shrugged and said: I was a boy scout. Then we had a really bad nor’easter and the power was out for almost 12 hours. During the outage she came up to me and gave me a big hug and said thank you. I asked what for and she said: because there was water to flush the toilet.

If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.

One winter we lost power for 5 days straight and it got very cold in the house. It was miserable. We could see our breath inside! It was so good when they finally fixed that outage and the heat and lights came on.

You can buy a generator.

You would think that a woman in her 60’s, with a life time of experience behind her, would not be rattled by a winter storm.

Humans have survived far longer without electricity and furnaces than they have with those conveniences. If you can’t figure out how to do it, well, let Darwin reign. Society will be better off for it.

fire up the generator, but make sure it’s sitting in the garage near an open bay door!

one emergency at a time, one foot in front of the other, one day at a time, live in the moment

Twice we had to go without power for 5 or more days. It’s not fun when all of your appliances and heat are electric. Luckily, we have a gas grille to cook with,

Apparently they have gas or propane for the stovetop.

Slip under the covers and use body friction to stay warm.

Janis, the time to “do” stuff in case there’s a bad storm coming through should be done before the skies open up and the rain/snow/sleet falls….but at least get some drinking water poured and set aside, even if you’re filling up various pots/pans and spare glasses.

Electric blanket when power out?

My gas furnace still requires electricity, so one fall I bought a ventless gas space heater called Mr Heater from Tractor Supply as an emergency reserve for an extended power failure. Less than a month later my furnace died, so I turned it on. It is thermostat controlled, does’t require electricity, (It does have a small fan, but it works just as well without it.) has no fumes or odor and kept my 2500 square foot house at a comfortable 70 degrees, and even kept the basement at 65. It did such a good job that I didn’t bother to replace the furnace until spring. Just to be safe I had also bought a carbon monoxide detector that also detects other harmful gases and mounted that in the same room, and it never indicated a problem.