brin_bellway: forget-me-not flowers (Default)
Brin ([personal profile] brin_bellway) wrote2020-05-31 11:21 am

Always too soon, but especially now

[cw: apocalypse]


Me: *reading about EMPs on The Prepared, in hopes of some actionable advice*

The Prepared: *not much of anything in the way of actionable advice, although to the best of our admittedly-limited knowledge household devices likely _do_ keep working after a solar EMP (likely _not_ a nuclear EMP, but OTOH if you're getting nuked you presumably have even bigger problems), it's just (""just"") the power production/delivery system that fails, which _implies_ that standard reduction-of-grid-reliance techniques would work? maybe? god I wish I could afford more of those than just a solar phone charger, but I have to prioritise: no sense in putting solar panels on a failing roof*

The Prepared: also, it'll take a while to even be confident that it *was* an EMP and not some smaller-scale power outage; the first sign that it *might* be an EMP is hearing a loud boom and/or seeing a flash right before the power goes out

---

Me, one fucking day later, a little while after going to bed: *lightly asleep*

Outside: *boom* *flash of orange light* *power goes out*

Me: holy SHIT

---

[over the next few minutes, the power flickers back on two or three times, each immediately followed by another boom and flash and the power failing again; this is...a good sign? maybe?]

---

[at the impromptu, flashlight-lit family meeting]

Brother, mostly joking: We should tell scary stories in the dark!

Mom: Oh God, no. I was just thinking I've been watching too much Walking Dead before bedtime.

Me, internally: You think *you've* been reading too many scary stories??

---

Me, reluctantly on my way back to bed because whatever happens next I should at least *try* to face it better rested, right?: *looks out window*

Outside: *streetlights in the distance are lit: the next sub-network over is still functioning*

Me: Oh thank *god*, it's *not* global, it's not even *regional*.

Me: *sleeps significantly more soundly with this knowledge*

---

[shortly after dawn]

Me: *rolls over*

Humidifier: *whirrr*

Me: Good. *goes back to sleep*

---

Me: *goes downstairs after brushing teeth etc*

Time discrepancy on oven clock (the cumulative length of the outage): [two hours, fifty-five minutes]