well there are a few thoughts I want to post but the first thing is THANKS to everyone that gives information and ideas on this forum. I have learned a lot from these posts.

well last week we had a small thunderstorm here in my area of TN. I left work (10 mi) and hit heavy rain that lasted for about a mile then slacked off. We had heavy winds after the rain and as i was driving home i was noticing the treetops swaying about 20 - 25 ft with the wind. As I was driving a telephone pole snap and fell towards the road. I hit the brakes and luckily the wires held it up and kept it from landing on a compact car. Fortunately i knew of an alternate route home (thanks to all here). I had my girlfriend call the police and tell them were the pole was, they already knew about it but at least I tried. (need to put local non emergency police number in my cell)

After I got home we had power for about 5 minutes then lost power. there was some rice already cooked for supper but as we have an electric range there was no power to cook the stir fry beef. The gas grill worked well for this with a cast iron griddle like thing that I had. BUT a gas grill takes forever to heat up a pot of frozen corn. (should have used the camp stove but was talked out of it by my GF).

I was kind of hoping the power would stay off as the kids were playing outside but it came back on around 9:00. The power being out was more of an inconvenience for the kids. I kind of enjoyed it actually.

There's been more than one occasion where I get home from work and leave the lights and the tv off (gotta have the AC if it's hot out though), break out the skillet and cook up some grub on the patio. When the sun sets, I break out the lanterns and enjoy the serene flickers from the dancing flames. I've got about a dozen glass oil lamps around the house, and it is something to sit on the couch quietly reading by the light of 3 or 4 lamps at night; no tv, no dishwasher, just the sound of me occasionally sipping on my whiskey. Sometimes after the meal I will just sit out at twilight on the steps out back and puff on my pipe for a while, listening to the critters.

It is good to unplug once in a while. That way when you have to, you are less stressed about doing without.

We just had a temporary Out of Power trial run.....It was (we believe) a lightning strike that blew the "drop out switch" (FPL teminology). Everyone had power around us but we didn't. Things weren't too bad....we broke out the Jenga and the kids played it for the first time...they liked it. Then there was the Uno card game.....fun too. Then I decided that I wanted to heat the 'left over coffee' for a nice cup (despite no AC and the temp going up)....not wanting to break out the percolator for (literally) 2 cups of coffee, I used the olicamp cup over a butane stove (single burner)....It worked really well.

Matter of fact, the 'support' system worked well too. My neighbor asked if we needed to put anything in the fridge offered his.....The only thing I need to do....I use to only fill the Aquatainers when any hurricanes were projected toward our area....now I think I'll fill at least one once the 'rainy season' starts (it usually equates with lots of thunder/electrical storms).....

Oh and if anyone needs a recommendation....the "O2 cool" battery powered fan worked really well for us.......it is a little bulky and heavy (with the D batteries) but we are planning on getting a second one. (And no...no affiliation with the company)