The power's out again, or perhaps I should say it's still out. Everything but the cable tv and internet came back on last night, but around noon today the electricity went out again. PG&E's automated phone voice said something about 8 pm for a status update; I sure hope it's back on before then. The battery just died in the laptop and it's getting awfully warm in here.
The power cut in and out a few times and then finally stayed off at around 1 pm today. Shortly after went off I decided to run up to the store. (I'm glad I filled up the tank yesterday.) I noticed a woman talking to my neighbor next door through her window and I waited to speak to her to see if they knew anything more than I did. She had just come down to Almaden to take her elderly parents to her house where they had power. Her mother looked pretty worried and kept talking about the stuff in the freezer going bad.
I drove the half mile or so up to Safeway and saw that they had signs on the door saying that they weren't selling any perishable foods until further notice, but they were open. They'd pulled all the meats, deli foods, cheeses and other dairy off the cooler shelves and roped off the freezer aisles. I bought some cherries, strawberries, toilet paper, batteries (for what I don't know) and another case of bottled water; feeling a little like a hoarder of resources in a natural disaster zone.
There was power at the shopping center, but the cashier said it had just recently come back on after going off about 8 pm last night. We laughed when I told him that my power had just gone off again after coming back on around 8 last night. The always bustling Starbuck's right next door was closed with a sign on their door saying something like "no power, no coffee".
After leaving Safeway, I drove around for a liitle bit to see where power was off and on. There was no reason to go home really, the car was a/c cooled and home was not anymore. The outages seemed random, some street signs were out, but others were not. The Albertson's about 3 miles away was open and selling frozen and refrigerated goods and they said they hadn't been down at all. But the ATM outside the store was down.
Strange weekend.
