It’s 6:48pm and I (and my entire complex, and, it seems, much of the area) am without electricity. I have a couple of battery backups, and I have my Airport Extreme and DSL modem plugged into one of them. I’m posting this from my trusty MacBook.

Power has been gone for about 25 minutes now, and PG&E have indicated they “know” about the problem. They expect to have power back “between 6:15pm and 8:30pm”. We shall see….

I lost power twice in the span of twenty minutes, earlier today, each time under a minute. Enough to shut down my TiVos rather rudely. I hope the drives don’t get corrupted.

I have a fair amount of food in the fridge, so I’d rather not be without power for too long. I’m chatting with my friend JS in New York as this happens, and she mentioned that ConEd in NY paid for the loss of her food and any damaged appliances, but I doubt PG&E would do the same. Something to investigate, should it become necessary.

In the mean time, I’ve flipped all the switches in the fuse box to protect my stuff in case of a power surge when electricity finally comes back.

Update, 7:15pm: Power delayed. Automated call from PG&E stating power is estimated to return between 8pm and 10pm. Sigh.

Update, 8:10pm: Power restored. Automated call from P&E informs me power has been restored. Unfortunately, I’m out looking for dinner. I had to hand-open my garage to get my car out. Funny how much stuff around us stops working without electricity.

Update, 8:30pm: Finally back at the house. Lights are on across the complex. Whew. Off to flip the circuit breakers, power on the servers, and post this.