Office Blackout

At work on Monday 04-03-06 we had a blackout on our block. I work in a 12 story building. The call center is on the 6th floor. It was pretty freaky. Boom! The lights go off. I was playing with my Peak Matterhorn 3LED. On it goes. It was very bright in the pitch blackness that had enveloped the sixth floor call center.

The emergency generator kicked on after about 30 seconds. We had maybe 1/10 0f the lights on. Some areas (break room) were totally dark. The Matterhorn was in used by several people to get stuff from the break room. The blackout lasted 2 hours.

I can only imagine how screwed my co workers would be if the backup generator had failed. It was pitch black with the generator off. I Could not see my hand in front of my face.

Just goes to show that any light is a lot better than no light. I advised my co-workers to invest in the little one keychain lights. Surprising no one asked how much the Stainless Steel Matterhorn cost. I was also carrying an old Arc Standard. It was not used or loaned out.

"one is none and two is one."

I don't have too many blackouts at work but it has turned into a bit of a game. If the lights go out several folks are looking for me and as we have emergency lights scattered in the plant so no real danger at times I am hard to find.
Topper

I wish we'd have a huge blackout here in Evansville, for like two or three days, hehe. It would give me a reason to play with my lights some more... Or better yet, a blackout at my house back in Kentucky, for like the whole Easter weekend. It would be nice to be able to use that time to reflect on the true meaning of Easter, instead of the damned Easter Bunny. I mean, what does a person in a bunny costume and candy have to do with the ressurection of Jesus?

/me gets of the rant soapbox...

I personally don't lend out either of my EDC lights to anyone, but I always have 1/2 dozen or so loaner lights for people to use in times of need. I keep some inexpensive LED lights handy, like Pelican's L1, and Streamlight's Stylus, as well as a couple of Pelican Pelilight incans for the times more light is called for.

Chuck

I now have a RR 2AAA in my desk for loaning out now.

Darn- our office building has a lot of windows so during the daytime it can't get very dark. So no chance to play with lights for me.

if it's totally dark in there with the power off, one of those palights with the very low always-on mode would be a good investment. set it somewhere it won't be noticed until the lights are off. it might even help someone when you're not there.

My last office job was at a large automotive supplier, multiple times when we had blackouts back in the factory I would have groups of people following me like the Pied Piper because I was one of the few who always had a light handy.

firefly99 said:

Don't wish for something to happen. You can make it happen, just find the circuit breaker box in that building and flick the switch. Put out the fuse and dump it, to achieve long term blackout. :naughty:

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That's not a bad idea at all... :rock:

I remember long time ago, back on the last day of my 5th grade, we had a huge storm and a tornado... we lost power for three days. I had so much fun, and that was just with (I was a kid at the time) just a MiniMag and a cheap 2D flashlight. I'd have a field day if we had that now... it would be even better if the blackout was in Evansville, where everybody is using flashlights, hehe.

Some people have all the fun.

At my job only a few rooms would be pitch black, besides the bathrooms. We have lots of windows.

As fun as blackouts can be, prolonged ones can cause a real headache when the fridge food starts going bad. A blackout of 1 or 2 hours is about right to have some fun.

Still, rather have the lights out than the water. Ugh....that happened last year.

Why can't the gas go out some time?

I think if I lived in Calif, I'd EDC several lights everyday to work. You never know when they'll run a rolling blackout there with their power grid.

There haven't been rolling brown-outs in California for 6 years now and the few that did occur were pretty sporadic. Our offices in Oklahoma have power outages far more often due to the greater extremes in the weather.

BlackDecker said:

I think if I lived in Calif, I'd EDC several lights everyday to work. You never know when they'll run a rolling blackout there with their power grid.

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